Reply To: Sh*t fauxtogs say (feel free to add your own)

[fstopper89]

This is the series of messages with this girl (originally her work was posted by someone else one of the other threads on here) and when I scanned her FB page, she had a post saying that “People have nothing better to do that criticize my work.” I wrote a comment something along the lines of, “It’s not that they have nothing better to do, if you are getting criticism, it’s a sign that you need to change or grow. Take some courses or workshops in photography. Invest in some good cameras and lenses and editing software. It’s not cheap, it’s not instant, but if you are really passionate about what you do, you need to learn. I can give you some advice if you’d like.” blah blah blah. She deleted the whole post and sent me a message:

Ashley: I have been doing it for years…and the only reason that chick had ride comments was because she was put up to it….but that doesnt matter….I have taken.course and dont like them…i dont want my style of taking photos change…i ike and love doing it and theres always going to be an ass out there

Me: Taken classes and don’t like them? That is a very ignorant statement. I don’t know you, don’t even live in the same country as you, but I guess I was trying to help you out. But you don’t want the help, and those who never accept advice will never improve. It has nothing to do with your “style” of taking photos. Most of what I have seen are out of focus images, graininess, high saturation and contrast, orange skin, spot-color, and the use of on-camera flash which causes horrible shadows and odd lighting on the skin. You can keep getting clients who want a major bargain, shooting and giving them a disk of mediocre photos and not really caring about your work. And I can tell you those clients will not frame those photos for their home. I guess not all photographers take their work seriously like I do. Do you even shoot with a DSLR camera? Do you shoot in RAW? Do you own Photoshop or Lightroom? Do you know what f-stop, focal length, shutter speed, ISO, wide-open, fast lenses, crop sensor vs. full frame, shoe-mount flash, al servo vs. one shot focusing, all means and how they all relate? Shooting with your camera on auto and over-editing an out-of-focus image is not a style, it’s laziness. I’ve been doing photography seriously for about 2 years now (part of that, working for another photographer who later moved away). I also took college courses in photography. I’ve nearly gone broke buying equipment, a new hard drive for my computer, and paying for file backup services to ensure my clients’ photos will be safe. I have a 2-page contract. I care about my work and my future.

Ashley: I was talking to the lady at the college and shes says its not worth it

Me: Well that lady sounds pretty ignorant herself. I don’t have a degree in photography. Having an art degree often doesn’t lead to a job. But classes themselves lead to a wealth of knowledge, experience, and ability to take critique.

Ashley: Havent had any customers complaine yet

Me: Alright then…. guess I’m done trying to help. Let’s just say you need A LOT of help. And I’m speaking from the viewpoint of a consumer as well as a semi-professional photographer. The worst mistake any artist or aspiring artist can make is to say they are perfectly satisfied producing mediocre work and that they just don’t need to learn anything new. Therefore, you will always produce mediocre work.

(FB said she saw that last message) Was it wrong of me to go at her like that? I guess I didn’t care that much, but it irked me so much to hear someone say those things I couldn’t just leave it alone. I was prepared to actually help the girl out if she asked though I suspected from the beginning that she wouldn’t want to hear it. She said she’s been doing this since 2009. Obviously, she has not improved and probably won’t. And I could not get over her grammatical errors all over the place and even on her business page. She must have also turned off comments on her images because yesterday the comment box was available to me and it no longer is… lol.