Reply To: Fauxtogs who should end up on the main page…

[FauxFighters]

Forreally, I think you need to look at the total conversation before you just start trashing Roxanne and others.  None of us have ever said we were Ansel Adams, above reproach, not learning, etc.  The issue is all of the people who get a camera and with no experience immediately decide they are a photographer and put up a webpage and start charging for their work.  I think BEG89 has a really good grasp on photography and has nothing she should be ashamed of on her site. Even if a lot of her portfolio was shot with just a T2i, she has a good eye for posing, light, etc.  Meanwhile we are posting pictures from “photographers” with cameras that cost 10x what hers did and are posting AWFUL shots as representative of their paid work.  For me it is as much trying to determine what they are doing wrong and critique it, not just outright insult.  Some people may be in here to grind an ax against the “competition” or whatever, but I’m not.

If somebody is new to photography, I totally encourage it.  Lord knows nowadays everybody thinks that photography can be done with a camera phone and Instagram, so the more interested in using SLRs and photography means more people to talk to, teach, and learn from.  I love advocating for photography.  But I do think many people get a camera and make the immediate leap from taking pictures of their kids playing T-Ball to I should do this as a business.  I personally did not get a BS in Photography, but I have taken university courses in photography, read every book that I can on it, been in multiple photography clubs, worked for a professional photographer and now shoot for my employer.  Others may not have the chances I have had to learn, but I don’t understand how people can honestly post some of the pictures we have in this thread and feel they should be getting paid for it.