Reply To: How do you tell them?

[IHF]

Telling a photographer who already gotten to the point of being able to self critique and has an understanding that everything they turn out isn’t a winner, is a completely different s scenario  than telling a new tog that’s still on their photography discovery high, that something is wrong.   A good friend of mine absolutely hated a small series of shots I took and edited quite differently than my usual clean way (I usually play around more with my snaps and personal pictures than I do with my actual photographs) Initially I made these images just to share on my personal Facebook to tell people about the park I just went to.  I receive such a positive response, and even had a purchase inquiry on one of them, that I went ahead and added them to my port.  He was tortured by it.  We got drunk one night, and he let it fly.  There was no butt hurt conversation between us, and I quickly went back to being more particular about what goes up for sale vs. personal junk.  A lot of togs will think “hey! It’s just one person’s opinion”.  That’s very doubtful to me.  I’m sure he was not the only one feeling the exact same way.  He was just the only one with enough balls and enough care and interest in my photography to say something.  I keep people like that around 🙂 and thank them profusely.

if this tog is established and he knows you (as in you have had conversations before) it should be just fine as long as you do it privately.

a faux or talented newbee on the fast track, is another story all together.  You have to remember back to the time when you thought you were pooping gold, even if it only lasted a couple weeks like it did myself .  Some people stay in that phase a very very VERY long time, some never escape it, and it shows lol.  When they aren’t treated with kid gloves, and are given the truth straight up… well you already know…this is YANAP after all.

I talked privately with a tog once about an image she was using for her marketing all over her online presence.  It was an unfortunate shot.  While technically sound, it was… Well… it lead the eyes to believe it was something else entirely.  Something very inappropriate, and not what you want all over your newborn and family portrait advertising.  I wasn’t the only one snickering behind the scenes and having giggles, My pm box was very full that day, and even someone here had mentioned it to her.  She took it well and thanked me for letting her know, but she took the “she’s the only one that feels that way” approach, and it’s still up all over the place, for the world to see.  Why?  Not because she sucks, or because she is stupid, but because she hasn’t quite got out of the pooping gold phase, and she’s moving too fast.  It’s a difficult thing to read, because you can’t just tell by looking, especially if they have talent. you really never know how criticism will be received without first having a relationship of some sort with someone.  This is not to completely knock online criticism/critique, but it is much more difficult to give and receive in an online setting.