I stopped reading at the first 'fucking'. Well, that's not right. I
made it as far as the second one.
I'm not adverse to using the F word but if this guy can't get the
message across by reasoned argument then I can't be bothered reading it.
Cheers
Brian
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Brian Walters
Western Sydney Australia
http://lyons-ryan.org/southernlight/
Quoting Bipin Gupta <bip...@gmail.com>:
This great little piece landed in my Inbox today from my school mate
in Canada. This could be a tribute to all us great or not so great
Photographers.
Read on folks. You will love it or ........ hate it. The choice is
yours. But do share some feedback - either way.
Regards. Bipin.
1. It is more about equipment than we'd like to admit and smart kids.
The kid whose dad bought him a D3 and a 400mm f/2.8 lens is going to
have a better sports portfolio than you. You're talented but too
fucking cheap to provide or get top notch equipment. As a consequence,
he got all the primary shots he needed in the first five plays and
spent the next half-hour experimenting with cool angle shots and
different techniques, while you were still trying to get your fucking
cheap DSLR to lock focus quickly enough and shoot.
True, you can't pick up a pro camera, set it to P mode and instantly
turn into Ansel Adams. But if you're learning at the same pace as
everyone else and you are trying to keep up because your equipment
can't hack it, the difference will be stark, and frustrating. Remember
today’s kids are smart learners.
2. People are doing some unethical shit with RAW and nobody really
understands or cares.
Photoshopping the hell out of photos is a no no in photojournalism, we
all know this. And yet I see portfolios and award compilations come to
our desk with heavy artificial vignetting, damn-near HDR exposure
masking and contrasts with blacks so deep you could hide a body inside
them.
When I question anybody about this they say "oh yeah, well I didn't do
anything in CS6, just the raw editor in Lightroom real quick so it's
okay, it's not destructive editing, the original is still there."
It's not okay.
But it doesn't seem like anybody cares. Some of the shit on the wire
services looks exactly the same so they got jobs somewhere.
That dude that got canned from The Blade for photoshopping basketballs
where there were none? He's found redemption- I remember reading an
article where some editor says "oh he sends us the raw files so we
know its kosher now."
Fucking storm chasers are the worst offenders at this shit. Guess what
he does now.
3. Many times, sadly, it doesn't even matter if your photos are all
that good or not.
We are in the age of the Facebook Wedding Album. I've shot weddings
pretty much every Saturday for a decade and if there is one thing I've
learned it is the bride paradox: people hate photos of themselves even
if they are good, people love photos of themselves with people they
love even if they are bad.
And that's totally fine.
Now that many people have a DSLR, there exists an entirely new and
growing population of couples who are perfectly happy employing their
wedding guests as proxy paparazzi for everything from prep to ceremony
to formals to cake to dance. They will like their photos better than
ours, even though they won't last, they won't be able to put together
a quality album, but they really don't mind.
And nobody cares.
My buddy, an excellent photographer that chooses to shoot mediocre but
proven poses for senior portraits, yearbooks, weddings, school sports,
etc.,.. makes something like $ 70k / year in Midwest money. He's a
really great photographer, but you'll never see the good stuff he
shoots because it doesn't sell. You shoot what the clients want.
4. Photography is easier than we'd like to admit.
Here's something for you: I've been doing this for a long time. I am
an excellent photographer. Give me an assignment and tell me what you
want and I assure you, I'll come pretty fucking close to the picture
you had inside your head. I am very, very good at what I do.
You know what? You could learn everything I know in a few months.
Maybe less if you really focus on it.
That's it.
My knowledge, my experiences, all of it, from professional sports to
weddings to news to features to product shots to portraits, you can
learn all in a few goddamn months, especially if you have Pro gear.
5. We need to stop being goddamn snobs and accept the coming of The
Golden Age
Remember that asshole kid with the $ 5k Nikon D3 whose portfolio was
better than ours?
Have you played with a D3? That is a sweet goddamn camera. That can do
everything you need to do, right now. Even ISO 6400 is beautiful. And
a lot of cameras are like that. Take the Pentax K-5 – beats the hell
out of the Canon 5D Mk III, if we are to believe DxO Mark
Everything is getting better. Sony, Canon, Nikon, Pentax, everything
is fantastic. And that means more people are going to be able to
afford really great cameras that can do amazing things and we are
going to see some amazing photography come from surprising places.
It's going to be awesome.
It may also be the death of a profession – of Pro Photographers?
Is this a bad thing for the industry? Look at the quality of the
photos from a smartphone and the level of editing you can apply to
those shots on the phone itself.
No, this is a damn fucking positive thing. Cheers Photography and all
you great Photographers!
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Cheers
Brian
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Brian Walters
Western Sydney Australia
http://lyons-ryan.org/southernlight/
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