Facebook "Pros"

NellyG

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Ok. I am fairly new to photography but I know a good photo from a bad one any day of the week. Especially when it comes to wildlife photos.. I have a lot of "photography" companies I "liked" on facebook so I can enjoy other peoples work.

One wildlife photographer in particular is posting the absolute worst wildlife pictures I have ever seen. The bad thing is he obviously thinks they are good because he posts them every day. I dont think we can post links here or whatever but trust me when I tell you, they are really bad. What makes guys like this say they are a pro and put this kind of material out there for public consumption? I would never show anyone any of my work if it looked this bad. Im sorry for the rant but someone had to say it.
 
You are a "professional" photographer when you get paid for your work - paid for your work by anyone. If his clients are his friends and acquaintances, for example, and they are paying him, then he's a "professional". Being a professional doesn't mean you're good at your craft. Have you ever eaten at a terrible restaurant? Same thing.
 
Unfortunately... with modern technology, DLSR's are so easy to use (on a basic level), that almost everyone that buys an entry level system thinks they can go pro after a few months, maybe a year. If there was no Autofocus.. that would weed out the majority of them... and if there was no program and AUTO... that would weed out a lot more. With family and Facebook friends telling them how great they are, and since everybody else is doing it... why shouldn't they?

As kja6 mentioned... calling oneself a professional, does not mean one can produce professional quality images... it just means that they have joined the millions of other "PRO's" that produce amateurish work that they charge idiotically low prices for. Unfortunately, the proliferation of these "PRO's" has caused a general decline in what is acceptable as professional photography.

The best thing to do is not worry about them... just laugh as needed, and move on.

And yes.. MY definition of Professional is not based on whether they get paid, but more on the quality of the work that is produced! So IMO, there are very few Professionals out there! Just CWC's (Clowns with Camera's)... since the terms MWAC / GWAC is no longer politically correct around here.
 
There are "professionals" (with a lower case "p") and there are "Professionals" (with an upper-case "P"). The ones who get paid for shooting crappy photographs are the former. Those who understand the true definition of "Professionalism", who realize that there are no excuses, who are able to get the job done on time and on budget, who are able to produce professional-quality results, they are the latter.

The world is full of both variants and probably always will be because we keep inventing new "professions" every day. I saw an advertisement for some piece of household junk on TV yesterday and one of the talking heads who was raving about it carried the title of "Professional Organizer".
 
This is one topic that should go into the "forbidden hot topic" bucket, as far as I am concerned.
 
This is one topic that should go into the "forbidden hot topic" bucket, as far as I am concerned.

I disagree... I think discussing unpleasant topics can hopefully educate those that need educating! And it can act as a catharsis... which is better than the alternative. We are so PC now... we can't even call an idiot an "idiot"... sad!
 
It is interesting that you would mention Political Correctness.

This is strongly associated with, really a result of, a "call out" culture. People are "called out" as *ist. He is racist. That group is sexist. You are ableist.

This call out culture is, I posit, socially identical to TPF's culture of calling out "bad photographers" as individuals and as groups. The calling out is the same, the same claims are made about it ("education") and the same realities surround it (it's not education at all, it's social signalling and group dynamics based in a large part on personal insecurities which are themselves fed by the very same group dynamics).

Anyways. Call out culture is annoying. The unending drumbeat of "such and such/so and so are/is very bad" is the single most annoying thing about TPF, and it makes the site look like a bunch of insecure weenies.
 
It is interesting that you would mention Political Correctness.

This is strongly associated with, really a result of, a "call out" culture. People are "called out" as *ist. He is racist. That group is sexist. You are ableist.

This call out culture is, I posit, socially identical to TPF's culture of calling out "bad photographers" as individuals and as groups. The calling out is the same, the same claims are made about it ("education") and the same realities surround it (it's not education at all, it's social signalling and group dynamics based in a large part on personal insecurities which are themselves fed by the very same group dynamics).

Anyways. Call out culture is annoying. The unending drumbeat of "such and such/so and so are/is very bad" is the single most annoying thing about TPF, and it makes the site look like a bunch of insecure weenies.

What we need to do amolitor, is to turn back the hands of time, to the era before autofocusing and before autoexposure, and go wayyyyyyy back to the Crown Graphic era, when only white males in their mid-40's were considered Professional Photographers. That would solve EVERYTHING!
 
Ok. I am fairly new to photography but I know a good photo from a bad one any day of the week. Especially when it comes to wildlife photos.. I have a lot of "photography" companies I "liked" on facebook so I can enjoy other peoples work.

One wildlife photographer in particular is posting the absolute worst wildlife pictures I have ever seen. The bad thing is he obviously thinks they are good because he posts them every day. I dont think we can post links here or whatever but trust me when I tell you, they are really bad. What makes guys like this say they are a pro and put this kind of material out there for public consumption? I would never show anyone any of my work if it looked this bad. Im sorry for the rant but someone had to say it.

Actually no one had to say it. It's a wildlife photo. It's not like he's shooting for GQ. Get over it plZ.
 
It is interesting that you would mention Political Correctness.

This is strongly associated with, really a result of, a "call out" culture. People are "called out" as *ist. He is racist. That group is sexist. You are ableist.

This call out culture is, I posit, socially identical to TPF's culture of calling out "bad photographers" as individuals and as groups. The calling out is the same, the same claims are made about it ("education") and the same realities surround it (it's not education at all, it's social signalling and group dynamics based in a large part on personal insecurities which are themselves fed by the very same group dynamics).

Anyways. Call out culture is annoying. The unending drumbeat of "such and such/so and so are/is very bad" is the single most annoying thing about TPF, and it makes the site look like a bunch of insecure weenies.

I agree, but I see both sides of the fence. We're a call out culture, because we're also a culture of deception. Scam artists and liars are everywhere. But TPF specifically, is filled with many, who are condescending, self entitled elitists. There's a dark cloud over this forum and many new members that are "self taught" via interacting with these individuals wind up talking and acting like them within a very short period of time. How many threads have we seen, that are calling out bad photographers that are made by people prefacing their post with "I'm fairly new to photography, but so and so on FB thinks he/she are so good." So what?! How good are you, to be making threads like these? This is a "fit-in" thread, trying to win the popular vote with other condescending members by being condescending yourself.

Why don't we ever see "I found this photographer and I think their work is amazing"? You know why? Because all of the negative forum members would swarm the thread nitpicking and tearing the work apart, OR if the work is really good, the thread would be dead in a day.

Charlie - You are a good photographer, and I mean that, and once upon a time, you were actually a voice of reason and patience. These days, you huff and puff about how you can't even call an idiot an idiot. Well there's another thing you can't do these days; knock someone out for calling you an idiot. The time of being able to say whatever you want, was accompanied with consequences, like getting your face punched in. No, I'm not trying to sound like a tough guy, I'm trying to give a side to a coin long forgotten. "Oh their just words. You need thick skin" That's the justification for those who have no idea how to professionally interact with others. "I should be able to say whatever I want, and if you get offended by it's not because I don't know how to talk to people, it's because you don't know how to listen to people."

I'm preaching, but I also don't run around putting people's work down, or calling them idiots unless they really really really deserve it.
 
Ok. I am fairly new to photography but I know a good photo from a bad one any day of the week. Especially when it comes to wildlife photos.. I have a lot of "photography" companies I "liked" on facebook so I can enjoy other peoples work.

One wildlife photographer in particular is posting the absolute worst wildlife pictures I have ever seen. The bad thing is he obviously thinks they are good because he posts them every day. I dont think we can post links here or whatever but trust me when I tell you, they are really bad. What makes guys like this say they are a pro and put this kind of material out there for public consumption? I would never show anyone any of my work if it looked this bad. Im sorry for the rant but someone had to say it.

I'm sorry. I'll quit posting them quite so often. :lmao:

Oh wait...they said "he." Whew! I guess I'm safe... :D

People post utter CR*P on the interwebz, especially on FB. "Humorous" memes with misspelled words or horrendous grammar, stupid scams and nonsense, and especially really bad pictures.
Why do they do it? Because of all the OTHER people on FB doing it too, and truly LIKING what's getting posted. "Oh, that's beautiful," they say because they love eagles, and they can clearly see that the object in the picture bears some vague resemblance to an eagle.

I started a FB Photography page not too long ago. I'm not a pro, and it's not to sell my work, it was just because I had friends sharing my pictures with others and then those others wanted to "friend" me and I don't "friend" people I don't know. So the Photography page made it so strangers can "like" the page and follow my photos instead of having to "friend" me personally.

Anyway...the very next day, this woman whom I'm friends with (only because my son and her son are best friends) liked my page, exclaiming what a wonderful, inspiring idea that was and promptly started her OWN page...posting some of the most hideous cr*pola I've seen in quite some time. And getting likes...initially, she was getting as many likes as my page, and I admit, my ego got a teeny bit bruised by that...for about 15 seconds, until I realized that I just didn't care. I let it go. It just doesn't matter.

The only way to stop the problem you describe is to FIX what's wrong with the human race--perhaps you could get a government grant and develop a "pill" for that? :lmao:
 
According to a media analyst's report released less than two weeks ago, a little over 500 million photos are "uploaded and shared" every single day on social media sites; over 350 million of those photos are uploaded and shared on Facebook each day. 350 million images per DAY, on Facebook alone. KPCB Internet Trends 2013 (see the slide on page 14 for this data).

So yeah, there are bound to be some really bad photos uploaded to Facebook. And there are some pretty good images that end up on Facebook. And plenty of stuff in between the extremes as well.

Standards HAVE shifted, both on the creation end, and on the consumption end of the photography game. There are many,many uneducated, self-taught, unstudied people buying cameras and snapping photos, and uploading them to Facebook. People who never once were concerned about photography, or art photography, or portraiture--many of these people bought or were given cameras, and within six months to a year, they have begun photography "businesses". The majority of them look at the work done by other people, using on-line image sharing sites, and they form sort of a cult of imitation, with the masses of untrained newcomers basically imitating one another in terms of equipment, approaches to shooting, posing, and so on. THAT is the new reality...HUGE numbers of images, every single day, non-stop, being uploaded to social media sites (mostly Facebook). 100 hours of video per minute is being uploaded just to YouTube now! We are in the middle of an imaging/photography/video revolution.

Of course, there are people who have devoted their entire lives to photography, art, cinematography,landscape photography, portraiture, or whatever, and many such people resent young newcomers telling them that their points of view and years' worth of experience are worth less than their newly-minted, got-my-first-camera efforts. Many beginners today feel like they know it all, that the rules no longer apply, and that "I like it this way" means that whatever they spew out, it MUST be good stuff. A very common reply to experienced photographers' suggestions on lousy composition is a defiant, "But I LIKE all this dead space! I like it like that!"

Getting bent out of shape about people posting dreck on Facebook is a losing battle. And so is trying to offer experience and skill and knowledge to newbies who "already know it all".
 
I have mixed feelings on these sorts of topics. on one hand, they rarely involve much "intelligent" discussion, nor do they often end in anything but the thread being locked and someone feeling like they need an icepack for their butt. the simplest and easiest answer would in fact, be to just ban the topic all together. on the other hand, once you start censuring the forum down to that level based on how often those topics go down in flames, you would have to add an awful lot of other topics as well. "new photographers starting a business", "what equipment for my new business", "how much to charge for my new business", and of course, "I just bought my DSLR and my "friends" want me to shoot their wedding because they love my FB pictures from prior "shoots".

in all reality, the REAL solution is for us, as responsible and caring forum members, to NOT fall into the viscous cycle of traps these threads lead us into. To see those baited topics in the thread title and not even even click on it and give it the courtesy of a view, letting it quickly fall into the unreplied depths of the forum to die.

the TOPICS are not the biggest issue. its how we deal with them that defines the thread.
just walk away and let it go man. don't let it harsh your mellow.
 
over 350 million of those photos are uploaded and shared on Facebook each day. 350 million images per DAY, on Facebook alone.

The Average American is uploading 1.15 pictures PER DAY.

When considered alongside the fact that the Average American doen't have 1.15 thoughts PER MONTH, that pretty much tells you everything you need to know. About everything.
 

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