What Don't You Like About Photography?

dasmith232 · Feb 2, 2017

I don't like the emphasis on the digits of digital photography. Too much attention on the machinery and specifications when in many cases it doesn't matter. "I bought this camera because it has 24MP and my last one had only 21MP - I never actually print anything, but can post better pictures to Facebook."

I don't like the depersonalization that happens when our attention turns to the equipment and all its myriad specifications instead of the people around us. And I'm guilty of this too. I have lots of equipment and can lose track of this.

I don't like when the emphasis is on "all the things that this, that or the other camera" cannot do. When another person (and it's always a photographer) tells me that his camera is good and mine is bad because of (whatever feature). And in many, many cases, that feature isn't all that important, or even used by that other photographer.

All of these things are caused by us, the photographers. We're at fault and entirely own the ability to stop doing these very things.

DanOstergren · Feb 2, 2017

SoulfulRecover said:
People who refuse to work with you because they are afraid you are going to steal their "secrets"

Sorry but everything you are doing, has been done before. We should help each other and be a community.

I just want a friend to pal around with and shoot with

A couple of years ago I was going to rent a studio for a day from another local photographer, but at the last minute she cancelled with the reason that she believed her clients would see my images taken in her studio and that they would start hiring me instead of her, which is absurd because I photograph models and she does boudoir and families. She turned away money and forced me to cancel on the model because of an absolutely ridiculous and unfounded paranoia.

mmaria · Feb 3, 2017

- vain people
- people who talk too much
- people who don't want to share their knowledge
- people who think that photography is a technical science
- people who don't make progress in their own work for years but are the first to criticize others
- people who know what is best for you
- people who....

.... see, I like everything about photography... just don't like certain people in it

Overread · Feb 3, 2017

EDITING - because it always seem to take forever and also is tied into the whole "oh that shot that looked great on the LCD _ you know the one with the great composition and timing - yeh - that ones out of focus/blurry/clipped important bits/totally a disasters" experience of going through shots.

Really all I want is a camera with a mind reading AF system that works at lightspeed! That's really not too much to ask now is it?!

DanOstergren · Feb 3, 2017

mmaria said:
- people who don't make progress in their own work for years but are the first to criticize others

This one tends to really get under my skin, especially when they go on about "proper exposure", "proper lenses", "proper cameras", "proper posing for certain genders so they don't look gay". They never share their own work, yet they'll write you a full text book about how they think you should be doing things their way or according to some BS rule, and demean and insult anyone who questions their non-existent authority.

pgriz · Feb 3, 2017

Sometimes... photography gets in the way of living. It becomes that 3:2 or 4x5 ratio box through which you peer at whatever's going on. It's the foodie that snaps 200 shots of an amazing meal while it slowly congeals. It's the tourist who has two cameras hanging off him (since it's usually a "him") who's pushing others aside to get the "proper" vantage point and letting everyone know "STAND BACK - I'm taking a MASTERPIECE" (all 20 of them). It's the proud Mom or Dad or Grandma that is shooting her/his daughter/son/grandkid's first play (from beginning to end). It's the guy who just met you at a party and wants you to tell you about his incredible f0.2 bokeh creator, when he finds out you have a camera as well. It the person who feels that if they didn't take thirty snaps of something, it didn't happen.

Photography is a little like parenting. Those who are so very "helpful" with their advice on how you should raise your (baby/toddler,teen,young adult) often seem to have missed the parenting class themselves. The really amazing parents are the ones who no-one notices because the attention is on how good/nice/personable their kid(s) is/are. And that's also the case with photography and photographers - the ones whose images pull you in, get you thinking, open up a bit of someone's life to you, get you to be part of the image are also the ones that aren't obsessed with holding the camera (or imaging device) every moment and for every occasion. Live, love, laugh... and take a picture if the mood is there. But don't forget to live, love and laugh.