Rant coming....

[JacaRanda]

..but frankly who cares?

Everyone that should be ignored

Instead of people tearing them apart and telling them they have no business to shoot or aren't good enough to charge...let them be.

Now what fun would that be; it would take away a large chunk of posts and joy out of our internet lives!

You are in the initiation phase. Soon you will either get sucked into the dark side, or join the Coffee House where folks know how to chill. If you hurry, I hear there is a really nice jazz band playing there now and the wild ones are over there doing the and getting their on.

 

[JacaRanda]

This place ins't a good barometer for how "photographers" think about things. Out of the thousands of members there are only a hand full of working professionals. Most are hobbyists and even more are keyboard jockys parroting the same crap over and over. The rest are gear head who only come here to debate their brand of choice.

Dang, I was kinda saying that first.

 

[Vtec44]

You'll rarely see an established photographer talk about or look down at other photographers. Generally, photographers that belittle other photographers are not happy with where they're at (either personal or business).

 

[JacaRanda]

I agree that there are a ton of rookie weddding photographers out there..but frankly who cares? Instead of people tearing them apart and telling them they have no business to shoot or aren't good enough to charge...let them be. They are shooting the cheap weddings anyways. They are shooting for the people who can't afford anything more than an armature with a so so camera. More often then not I see these criticisms coming from someone who has never in their life shot a wedding anyways.

We should all care. I'm not referring to the rookie who's just starting out and has done his/her homework, has some skills, necessary gear, etc, but to the HUGE crowd of "facebook fauxtographers" who've been told by someone that they take "great snaps", so immediately start booking paid shoots without the necessary licenses, insurance, skills or knowledge. I care about those people a great deal because their incompetence and poor practices give all of us a bad name.

I still have not figured out why I should care. I try, but just can't. If someone is established, or better, or professional in every way, why should they care? How would the

HUGE crowd of "facebook fauxtographers" who've been told by someone that they take "great snaps", so immediately start booking paid shoots without the necessary licenses, insurance, skills or knowledge.

impact Ansel Adams or anyone in the list we gave here Who are your favorite photographers? | Photography Forum?

 

[SCraig]

Personally, and this is just my personal opinion, I prefer for people I hire that claim to be "Professional" anything already know their trade very well. I wouldn't hire a carpenter that got his first hammer a couple of months ago or a mechanic who got his first set of wrenches for Christmas. I personally don't like the idea of hiring a so-called "Professional" photographer with only a few months beginner's experience, but that's where the world is at these days.

 

[tirediron]

I agree that there are a ton of rookie weddding photographers out there..but frankly who cares? Instead of people tearing them apart and telling them they have no business to shoot or aren't good enough to charge...let them be. They are shooting the cheap weddings anyways. They are shooting for the people who can't afford anything more than an armature with a so so camera. More often then not I see these criticisms coming from someone who has never in their life shot a wedding anyways.

We should all care. I'm not referring to the rookie who's just starting out and has done his/her homework, has some skills, necessary gear, etc, but to the HUGE crowd of "facebook fauxtographers" who've been told by someone that they take "great snaps", so immediately start booking paid shoots without the necessary licenses, insurance, skills or knowledge. I care about those people a great deal because their incompetence and poor practices give all of us a bad name.

I still have not figured out why I should care. I try, but just can't. If someone is established, or better, or professional in every way, why should they care? How would the

HUGE crowd of "facebook fauxtographers" who've been told by someone that they take "great snaps", so immediately start booking paid shoots without the necessary licenses, insurance, skills or knowledge.

impact Ansel Adams or anyone in the list we gave here Who are your favorite photographers? | Photography Forum?

Again, I'm not referring to those who are doing it 'the right way'; learning their craft, using the right equipment, and establishing a proper business. I care about them only insofar as perhaps I can help them in the same way that those ahead of me helped when I was first learning. The ones who really affect us are, I stress, the "facebook fautographers", who just got a camera, haven't read the manual and haven't bothered to actually establish a busiess, and as mentioned elsewhere, think that "30 minute mini-sessions with 3 billion "edited" images on a disc" is professional photography. Why do I care and how do they affect all of us?

I care because, IMO, these are the people having the greatest impact on the trend towards the acceptance of sub-par work being "good" and they affect us all, because our work, whether fiscally, artistically, or both, is being devalued as a result.

 

[runnah]

Personally, and this is just my personal opinion, I prefer for people I hire that claim to be "Professional" anything already know their trade very well. I wouldn't hire a carpenter that got his first hammer a couple of months ago or a mechanic who got his first set of wrenches for Christmas. I personally don't like the idea of hiring a so-called "Professional" photographer with only a few months beginner's experience, but that's where the world is at these days.

Well its because cause you have those with the delusion that getting paid $20 to take photos of uncle bob's fishing boat makes you a "Paid professional photographer".

Professional = skill set, not the fact that you conned some idiot to give you money for crappy photos.

 

[DoctorDino]

Of course good wedding photographers are "real" photographer. It's an art form in its own sense. I started as a landscape guy taking photos of random biz, but now that I've done weddings, it's easy to say they're a whole other world.

Notice I did say "good" though. As @runnah mentioned above, just because you may get paid to do something doesn't make you an "expert" or "professional". Take my parents' wedding way back in the day for instance - they didn't have much money, so they gave a family friend $300 to shoot their wedding. He had a nice camera and looked like he knew what was up, but "something happened" to his film apparently, and they don't have photos of their wedding.

I consider someone a "professional photographer" when they not only get paid to do something, but their work is quality and satisfies the customer.

 

[Derrel]

It seems to be a general consensus amongst "real" photographers that people who take pictures for money (more often than not, wedding photographers) somehow aren't real photographers and lack the talent of someone who takes pictures of random things for fun and knows their gear really well. Since when did the hobby or the art come before the business? Photography was a business first..and became a hobby and an art form after. Taking photos for money does not somehow make you a cop out.

If you hold a camera...and you take pictures because you love it, or because it's your business, then good or bad...you are a damn photographer.

As a wedding photographer (which is a title that I use proudly) I'm constantly being challenged to improve my craft. I need to be prepared for a million different scenarios, weather conditions, lighting conditions, I need to be fast with no second guessing. I need to be a people person and deal effectively and professionally with many different people at the same time from bride, groom, wedding party, and family to vendors. I need to be an entrepreneur. You don't have a ton of time to set up gear...lights...tripods...and a bride and groom to take tons of the epic wedding shots you would see on the cover of a magazine. Those shoots are 99% of the time stylized and not real weddings.

Weddings also range in budget from $1000-$100,000...so yeah someones images of a wedding shot in a church basement with streamers hanging from a basketball net may not be as good as a photographer who had the opportunity to shoot a wedding at the Ritz...but they are no less a photographer. Everyone deserves photos on their wedding regardless of budget.

If you feel so strongly that we don't know what we are doing and are total crap than GREAT! Use that to fuel your craft. You fortunately for us are not our target market. Take all that pent up rage and go take a killer photo of a mailbox and post it on Flickr.

*end rant*

Sounds like you might be experiencing a bad morning, beckylynne. I don't agree that there is any kind of general consensus that wedding shooters are not "real photographers"...in fact, my opinion is that MANY people think of wedding photographers when they think of the term "professional photographer". Weddings are one of the few very high-visibility, decently paid gigs left for regular photographers, now that digital cameras and computer darkrooms have cut out the costs of entry and lowered the cost of doing business for events, and since commercial clients have taken many accounts in-house. The easy money days are long,long gone. Small commercial accounts and individual jobs that used to be easy to get in the early 1990's are long since gone.

Wedding photographers run the gamut, from the uber low-rent ones with a body and an 18-55 kit zoom, to high-enders with staff and fantastic,well fantastic everything, and plenty of people who fall somewhere in between those extremes.

 

[beckylynne]

This is a funny but accurate video, very tongue in cheek. Most folks around here don't get past level 3.

That made me giggle

 

[Designer]

Take all that pent up rage and go take a killer photo of a mailbox and post it on Flickr.

I don't know the reason for this rant. If it was something I wrote, I'm either sorry or misunderstood. Either way.

 

[gsgary]

Take all that pent up rage and go take a killer photo of a mailbox and post it on Flickr.

I don't know the reason for this rant. If it was something I wrote, I'm either sorry or misunderstood. Either way.

I would say it's to do with this My first wedding... *gulp* | Page 3 | Photography Forum

 

[astroNikon]

Interesting Rant.

If anyone peruses Craigslist one can find $99 to $499 wedding photographers.
they are real .. as mentioned they take horrible photos, generally.

But photographers (here on TPF) are a finicky bunch
we'll see photos on Facebook, here, etc that have bad posing, bad lighting, raccoon eyes, etc etc etc except friends and the person in the photo are all ecstatic and happy about the photos.

I've always wondered how bad a photo has to be before someone on Facebook says something negative about it. I've yet to see anyone say anything negative about a facebook photo that I think is just plain awful.

 

[limr]

I'm still trying to figure out how photography was a business first.

I don't give a rat's arse about the rest.

 

[gsgary]

I was married in June and there was no way i was going to hire a photographer after looking round the net for local photographers, all my friends volunteered to take them, 1 Canon, 2 Leica's and a Fuji Pro1 and i was very happy with what i got and they got a hog roast and free beer. All the family were in the first shots
Our Wedding - Gary Clarke