Reply To: How do you feel?

[IHF]

I expect anyone who charges for a service to be able to provide the service they are selling.  Yes, photography as an art is subjective, but when you are providing a professional service it’s more than just subjective art.  Your work should be technically sound.  You should be able to provide your service consistently and reliably.  Not just depend on people loving the subjects in your photos to get you by.  It’s not right to take advantage of people’s emotions like that.  With that said, I don’t think the togs that come here asking “am I a faux” even realize that they are doing anything wrong.  They either also see a cute or beautiful subject and think it equals great photography just like their clients do, or they blatantly know they don’t know what they are doing and charge anyway “I just won’t charge much, while I’m learning”.  Not knowing this will actually harm their learning process and any future business plans they might have.  Or considering the harm and hurt it could do to others.  I think fauxs most times are victims to fauxtography as well as the client.  There are a few exceptions to this.  Like when it’s all about getting as much clothing off girls as possible, thieves, and people who out right lie and deceive for the mighty dollar.  But in general the whole faux mind set affects  more than just the clients, and it makes me sad.

I come here for entertainment, but I also like to try to help get through to people that its ok to just be an amateur while you are a student of photography, and that it’s actually a more meaningful, legit , productive, and honest way to go about it.  I can be harsh at times, but I feel you have to be honest and blunt most times so people actually hear what you are trying to say.  I don’t critique anyones photography that I feel is beyond my skill level, and I don’t like the “fauxtogs that should end up on the front page” type threads.  It’s one thing to put up an unmarked photo that cannot be linked back to the faux, and quite another to  post business links here to feed to the lions.  Plus these togs didn’t ask for critique, they don’t care what other togs think, they don’t care or think about how they can improve, so all it will accomplish is heated arguments, embarrassment, and make the poster of the links look like an ass.  Most of the link contributors really shouldn’t be calling anyone a faux anyway.  At least from what I’ve seen. but that’s also all part of the entertainment value.

oh and I’m here to learn!  Every once in a while we’ll get a pro that really contributes to the critiques, and it’s fabulous.  It’s happening less and less these days, and the linking and bashing happens more often, but when they chime in, I listen