Is anyone else extremely annoyed by all of the people trying to be photographers?

Question

Is anyone else extremely annoyed by all of the people trying to be photographers?

Answer 1

Well, yes and no. I'm an amateur with no aspiration to turn professional. Entry into the market is irrelevant for me, but I can see how lots of unskilled background noise can make it harder for a talented photographer to make money.



Everyone has to start somewhere, and maybe after a few years, these Cybershot photographers will gain some experience and begin to understand depth of field, exposure control, good composition, etc. I like to think that my current work is of a high standard, but when I look back a few years, some of my photos are not good at all. In another 5-10 years I will probably think that my work today is terrible.



If I were a paying client, giving money to a photographer to produce some pictures for me, I wouldn't care if their camera was on auto or manual. Sure, you need more skill to use manual mode, but ultimately if my wedding photos / commercial headshot / child's school photo turns out looking good, I don't care how it was made. However, you're probably right that the kind of person who uses full auto is less experienced at composition and other technical skills.



So from my point of view, a saturated professional photography market is of no concern. I do get fed up of seeing Flickr pages full of crap, but I think it's fine for beginners to exhibit their work to show their friends. These people probably shouldn't be offering to shoot weddings for $50 with their brand-new, one-week-old DSLR, though.

Answer 2

We had the same discussion, including some funny videos, 2 and 5 months ago.



Yeah.. part of it is, I think, the American culture (it's largely Americans) of not giving honest feedback but always the "wow, yeah, these are great, you should be a photographer!!!!11"

Another thing, the clients of these people. They pay next to nothing and that's what they get.



I've stopped worrying about it, I just snigger and laugh.

Answer 3

This is not a problem limited to professional photography. You would be shocked at the number of untrained people who buy Quickbooks and Turbo Tax, then try to go into business as accountants.



In most cases, however, it doesn't take too long for those kind of bookkeeping businesses to fall by the wayside (with "fall by the wayside" meaning crash and burn). The same would be true for the $5 photographers who try to do weddings or other major events.



For professionals, it come down to choosing a target market and addressing the needs of that market. Those who would be satisfied by $5 portraits are not the customers pro photographers would be seeking.

Answer 4

YES. It's fine if you have some good shots, but trying to declare yourself a pro like that is weak.



Same thing with DJing. People throw some lame program on and they're suddenly a "DJ". WTFever! The real thing takes interactive skill. You're just a jukebox otherwise.

Answer 5

Complaints like yours were made ~45 years ago, when relatively low cost/high quality film SLRs first started to come on the market. Many amateurs then took photos with good sharp focus and detail, never straying from the automatic exposure setting, but they had no clue about composition or lighting or much of anything else needed to take a pro-quality photo. The old film cameras were harsh masters. Mistakes like bad exposure, lighting, and composition errors wasted money (film) and time, and often opportunities too. That's why so many of those wound up in the closet, unused, after a few years



Coming from a film photography background going back decades, my main complaint about modern "amateur" use of digital cameras is the all too common notion that post-production editing ("Photoshop") is the be-all and end-all of high quality photography. One wag noted in the early 2000s that even then, Photoshop had ceased to be a noun and had become a verb.



I suspect your complaint is based on my observation that all too many amateurs think skill with photo editing software rates far higher than learning the huge list of other skills needed to consistently take high quality photos without editing. An amateur photographer who has vast skills with Photoshop but with no real eye for composition, lighting, finding eye-appeal subject matter, etc., is still an amateur - and will produce plenty of "snapshots" but few if any really good photographs. And they won't be a real threat to the pro photographers, or to the skilled amateurs having a decent collection of pro quality images .

Answer 6

you were once one of those people. you didnt come out of the womb taking brilliant pictures. and if they arn't good they dont go anywhere so there really is no point in making a big deal about it. cause if you are actualy good they company or people will go to you so just let those other people do what they want and you just mind your own photogaphy

Answer 7

Yes and no. First of all, the cheap wannabes aren't swooping in and taking my clients or any of the more discerning clients. They know what they're looking for and can tell the difference between a crap snapshot taken by a wannabe versus a legit pro or someone who's somewhere in the middle. Secondly, if pros are getting in a huff over something like this the last person they should be blaming is the wannabes. Though I will say pros, semi-pros, and advanced amateurs can argue they're devaluing the photography industry.



I don't know the entire history of photography nor am I an extremely skilled pro behind a lens (I can shoot full manual thank ya much), but I can hold my own in several situations. In your eyes does that somehow make you say I am not a real photographer? Do I have to know every in and out of the art and business of the craft before I can declare myself a "real photographer"? Not in my mind.



The only time these wannabes piss me off is when they devalue the industry by passing off snapshots as pros. Where I live there's an abundance of them and it's hard to rise up above them. Not impossible, but challenging.



Plain and simple: The wannabes will end up dropping their "businesses" in due time. Since they lack the experience, talent, and know-how they'll all quickly disappear. Those who do have it, will continue to learn and build their knowledge base. I'm not going to be worried about the POS wannabe in my area who makes my drunken images from a point and shoot look good.

Answer 8

It doesn't bother me at all. My clients hire me because they want quality photos. I've never lost business because of "amateurs", so it doesn't really affect me. It actually warms my heart to know that people all over the world are picking up cameras for the first time and experimenting with light and color and composition. To be upset about someone appreciating art is kind of silly, no?

Answer 9

Eh, people have to start somewhere. Don't discourage growth.

Answer 10

I used to feel that way, but now I don't and here's why:

Their "clients" are not my clients. Their clients do not value GOOD work and will not have the $ to pay my prices. Having said that, they are not my competition. I couldn't and wouldn't want to attract the $5 client anyway.

Not everyone can afford a top of the line portrait art piece on canvas to hang over their fireplace. Framed in a substantially large frame. With an autograph on it. That's ok. Some can't afford the good stuff from the Wal Mart studio. Those are sure as heck not clients I want. That doesn't mean they shouldn't have photographs. They absolutely should. It just means I shouldn't be the one taking them. The cheap $5 amateur with a point and shoot camera should. They are his or her clients.

My target market values artwork and good photography. They believe in you get what you pay for. They want high quality and recognize it.

what my target market is not is ME. I can't afford me. It's also not the family struggling with the unemployment rate and the crappy economy. It's not the barely squeaking off of food stamps crowd. It's not even the lower middle class most of the time. I don't want someone who is going to call me up and say "You're expensive, can you do it for $50?" because no, I can't. I'd go broke. BUT there is a photographer out there for them who will produce an image to make them happy for next to nothing. When that photographer is gone because they didn't have the business sense to know they were actually paying their clients there will be another one. And after that yet another... Which is good! Those people deserve someone to fill their needs too. Plus, my students have to start smoewhere and cheap is where they're getting their experience and perfecting the skills so that they can get to where they have the value of a GOOD photographer.



Should every GOOD photographer be expensive? No. There are those who WANT to work their butts off to be affordable to the masses. THere are photographers who firmly believe in offering their good services to the middle class who can't pay more than maybe a couple hundred dollars. I commend them for their beliefs and I wish I could GIVE photos to everyone I know. I just can't survive that way and that's OK too. If they want to work 60 hours a week for a measly paycheck of a few hundred bucks when they are done more power to them. I personally believe in work smarter not harder, therefore I work to perfect my craft and I only produce the artwork level. My choice. But it all comes back to His/Her clients are not the clients I want anyway.



Once you get to that point in your thinking you will find the photography and camera world to be a much greater place to live. Your art will show it and your personality/attitude. You will quit worrying about that few dollars and you will get commissioned for much bigger work. It's a mindset. I mentor those $5 photographers often. I have some that have gone on to far surpass my skill and I am so incredibly proud and impressed and humbled to work along side them in this industry. I am not their competition. They are not mine.

I often refer someone to another photographer if I am not in their budget. Yep, those $5 photogs again. Add to that the fact that it's good karma and you'll be much happier.



Now as to the feeling that a professional should know how to use full manual., Yes, I feel you are very right there. It takes skill to be a professional. Unfortunately once you begin to sell your product (good, bad or indifferent) you are then viewed as a professional by the general public.



You aren't a jerk by any means. It is very frustrating to see on here every day that "hey, I bought a D3100 and now I need to have a name for my business..." For several reasons: I first want to say "you have no clue..." Then I feel like they are on a crash course to failure and want to help them to avoid it-which in many to most cases here just isn't possible. Then I think "yep, I'll buy your camera when you fall flat on your face so one of my students can use it and actually succeed."



DSLR's are everywhere and at $500 for a current entry level? They are like guppies, bunnies and cockroaches. Get used to it. It just makes those of us who care and do have the skill push to be even better.

Answer 11

Don't knock cybershots. They can be good little cameras (depending on the model, of course). I happen to own a 3-megapixel one from 10 years ago that takes better pictures than some of the more modern ones.



There is competition in all the fun fields (marine biology, fashion, music, journalism). Photography is no exception. Plenty of us would like to be professional photographers (me included) but I don't whine about it. I realize that I am up against a bunch of amateurs with an uninformed public who think photos on automatic are great. It's the nature of the beast.



If an aspiring pro can't make their pictures stand out from the crowd, then maybe the problem is with her/him, not the crowds of amateurs. The few time(s) I've sought the services of a professional photographer, I made sure that he/she could take the kind of photos that I or my friends could not. THAT is how a pro gets business.



Knowing how to use "full manual mode" is useless if your composition is bad or your photos lack "umph." It's not like the exif data is going to show up on the print to let the customer know. (I don't care if it wasn't shot on manual mode as long as the exposure is correct). But yes, a pro should definitely understand how to adjust exposure on his/her camera.



You wrote: "Sometimes I wish that DSLRs weren't invented and everything was still film-oriented."



Sorry to break it to you but this was happening before digital cameras. That doesn't make any difference (although it may discourage many, it doesn't stop it completely). I know because I've been using a film SLR for over 15 years. I still shoot about half of my pictures with film.



Everyone has the right to start a business, regardless of their talent. Whether that business survives is another story. That's where the real pros shine (while the posers disappear).



And what is "real" photography? Nature shots? EMO pictures with sappy captions?



Lastly, as far as cheaper prices swooping down from under you and taking away your business: Do you buy things made in China, or do you buy American-made? (assuming you live in the United States). The only reason I ask is because that argument is also brought up by american manufacturing workers.



If I buy most of my things in china, then it's harder for me to justify my angst at lame amateurs undercutting me (pricewise).



I get what you are trying to say, but you need to chill out. You sound pretty angry (and young). Nobody said reaching your goals was going to be easy. It's hard. "A hard road, a prince-less toad, a bitter pill . . ", as one song goes. Just leave the snapshooters alone and focus on your craft.

Answer 12

As I pro of long standing, I agree but at the same time don't, the only important thing is the result, you wish the dslr was never invented but that's not the problem , it'e digital that's the problem ,how many so called photographers could make a living if the results weren't available straight away. Even that's not important surely again it's the result.

There is no mystery any more to photography, but believe me the good photographers will still make a living, what the pirates as I call them, is that a reputation is very difficult to get but very easy to loose, and most loose one before they get one.

Answer 13

Photography is an art. A way of expressing yourself. For people who can't draw, sing, dance, write, paint, etc, its the only art they can perform, so let them. I won a photography contest recently and got $20. It was just a community thing. I am no professional with a deep understanding of how cameras work, but I know what I'm doing with a camera.

Are you gonna tell people who draw that they can't be artists unless they know how pencils are made, and when to use what pencil? Do they need to know the history of drawing? No, they don't.

Its not our fault that film isn't the only way to take pictures. Its not just amateur photographers who ruined the art of photography. Its the equipment we have been provided with. Photoshop, editors, DSLR's, they can make any photo look good. So don't make amateurs feel bad, when it wasn't their fault.

Answer 14

Not really . I've been shooting for 30yrs.very passionately ,and can hold my own. My niece graduated with a photography degree, but is now tending bar. This uneducated photographer is still make a living at it ? Guess I wanted it more than her, that's what matters in the end.

Answer 15

Yeah, you're way off on this one. It's been said a thousand times; the gear doesn't matter. Only the final product matters.



Nobody cares what camera you used, what settings you used, how long you sat there to get the pic or how easy or hard it might have been. Example: a pro photographer has been sitting on a mountain ledge for eight hours waiting for the lighting to be just right. The moment arrives, and just then, a kid walks by with a camera, says "Cool!!" and snaps a pic. If the result is the same, who's the "real" photographer? Certainly not the guy who's been sitting there all day.

Answer 16

Interesting rant.... I'd say that a professional needs to make sure that they keep their standards up and keep pace with technological developments rather than worrying about what half the adolescent population of the USA are doing and saying about themselves... You're right they haven't a clue. If you can't be bothered to correct them or help them improve, then I'd leave them in their ignorance.

There are times when I just shake my head, and say "Oh well... " I'm not prepared to prostitute myself for a quick buck.... I prefer to look for the payers and if they are few and far between, so be it.

Answer 17

I totaly agree, i want to be a comercial photographer such as parties weddings sweet 16 and such and it seems like anyone can just buy a camera and take random pictures and all of a sudden consider them selves and "photographers" it does annoy me as well.

Answer 18

I didn't read the whole thing cause I have the attention span of a bat, buuuuuut I do get mad when people on Facebook have dumb photos and have put their own dumb sayings by them-.- like "never say never" or somthing dumb like that. And then they think their so awesome cause they think people like them.. I feel like saying"your photos suck, get a life and stop taking 100 pictures a day you freaking drama queen"..