Reply To: How to avoid being called a fauxtographer in 10 steps

[lolz]

I couldn’t agree more whole-heartedly if I tried. Excellent post and contribution to the photography world. Of course, this is all lost on those it should help the most.

 

Oh the irony.

 

I would expunge on #2 a tad- if you can not shoot in manual, don’t know what aperture priority is for, or how to adjust f-stops, you should NOT be charging money.  Directly referring to what Andy said a few days ago, if you don’t know how to use lighting, the on board flash is NOT going to help, and will only make your photograph worse.

 

The only other thing I would add to this is; if you are going to become a photographer, be honest. Which translates to, PAY TAXES. Those hacks out there that charge 50.00 for a CD with every image on it are becoming more the rule than the exception and it’s beginning to frost my cookies. Some competition is good for pricing, and some that are charging entirely more than they should are getting exactly what they deserve, but for the great majority of us charging fair prices and basing it off of what we feel is a completely legitimate wage are really growing weary of trying to justify what we charge based on these HACKS charging 1/16th of what should be charged. You can argue all you like with the standard ‘your portfolio should make all the difference’ but the majority of customers refuse to see the difference until it’s too late. Do us all a favor, and if it’s just your ‘hobby’ while you work a 9-5, then stop charging. If it’s something you want to turn into a career, please do so legitimately.