Home Forums Am I a Fauxtog? You'll Never Be A Great Photographer Reply To: You'll Never Be A Great Photographer

#12803
ebi
Participant

@Sharra, i only criticize the love of leibovitz. But I have personal issues with her. Ansel Adams was the shit. The man was a genius.

I’ll just be content being where I am with the drive to improve, but it will be at my own pace.

I believe people need to be pushed to be creative. By being harsh you push them to either move out of the way or get with the program. I probably don’t need to be that rude and I don’t typically start out that way, but when I get excuse after excuse why something is the way it is, I find it annoying. A great example is the girl who said her color temp was a “look” she was doing and “we all can’t do the exact same thing” but her look was inconsistent. It was a mistake, she wasn’t paying attention to detail. She was being lazy and then trying to bullshit her way out of it. Bullshit works really well in this industry if you can pull it off. (I’ve seen photographers actually get jobs in Fiji b/c they said, “they have amazing clouds in Fiji, we have to go there for this shoot”.) But she wasn’t bullshitting the bullshitter in this situation. It’s the same with the MWAC in my very first post to this form in which I was called rude for a very mild comment. Since then i’ve been criticized for not giving a thorough enough critique and just insulting people. It is true that I have been somewhat insulting at times. I, however, will not critique work that is messy and disorganized. Just as when you are in art school you can fail a project just for horrible presentation – improper cutting, mounting, centering of the work on the board, etc. So I will simply say, your work is not good (or it sucks), you’ve got way too much stuff, edit. And this particular person did make a pretty decent edit before she took down her work completely and it worked much better. It made her look less sucky than she actually did. AND then I critiqued every photograph.

I will never solicit myself as a pro or ask for money until I can gain the respect of the photographic community.

You shouldn’t really be looking for respect from the photographic community. I don’t have respect from the photographic community. But I have clients that I work with regularly who continue to hire me to shoot projects for them. I’ve been sent all over the world, on their dime, to shoot travel stories…and they pay me for it. I’ve shot two books this year and was referred by the publisher of one of those books to shoot an ad campaign for a very well known travel company…that is all the validation that you need. From the family portrait or wedding perspective, it has to be more about getting referrals from other people. I don’t know what kind of photography you do so I cannot give you an accurate example. My work is both editorial and commercial. People on here can tell you what works and what doesn’t and help you to improve yourself in various ways but they cannot get you work. And work is the ultimate validation. I don’t really care about the “fauxtogs” featured on this site. They aren’t really working. they are making scraps from people who have not taste and/or have no money. They aren’t going to last. They are no threat to anyone, really.


@Bill
– I feel all you get in this industry is no feedback, no call back. People would rather not be confrontational. So the best response you get is: “We decided to go in a different direction” if anything at all. Her friends were kissing her ass. You were truthful, she wont’ get anywhere with that attitude. I recently made a small, tactful criticism of a friend and she defriended me as well. I found it really strange.