Reply To: Ok…. Just curious

[Notaphotographer]

I am afraid right now I would consider you a fauxtog. You have a good start but I will adress a few things. First you are correct and using later or earlier hours on the outside shots but you still have some crazy shadows. Could have easily been fixed with refelctors or off camera strobe. Look up strobist. Next stay away from the heavy vignetting. It does not fixed a poorly composed shot. Pay attention to your backgrounds. I could go on but you probably get the idea. I am going to tell you what really makes you a fauxtog in my book, and so many others on here that are competent that are still fauxtogs. You complain about the Craiglist photographers as do many on here. Then you say you hardly charge anything. What is the difference? Because you do not advertise on Craigslist? No difference. You then talk about it being a war on facebook with other photographers. Well duh! It is because of people like you and on this site who basically are fairly competent but still give away their service. Look through all of these post and see how many do that. It is a great time for photography but I am afraid we are seeing the end of photography as a business. I am lucky. My job is to look at the photos from people like you, who will give away a great photo for a byline. I am not meaning to pick on you. Most on here fall under the same category. But I do get frustrated seeing all these so called photographers who do have some skill doing it part time for little to next to nothing. Then they want to start charging and cannot understand why they cannot make a living at it. It is because there is another MWAC or GWAC  down the street who will do it for nothing or next to nothing.  I have friends who have invested their lives into photography, money, time, and heart and soul 100%. You will not even pay $ 25.00 a month for a website so I doubt you have 30k or more invested in lenses and gear.  I do apoogize if this seems harsh at you. It is not intended. You are not doing anything different than the other thousands and thousands out there. But to me unless, you are just doing it for your own, or committed 100% you are taking away from those who are and puts everyone into the faux category. They have cheapened photography to the point where good photography has no value to the public. They will just get from the next guy for free. I apologize for the rant, but when I see friends who have been doing this for 20 years completely full time and now struggling, yes it is personal.