Fauxtogs who should end up on the main page…

[iliketag]

I hate the whole “award winning photography” stuff. Unless you were recognized as a whole, it’s easy to get lucky and pop off one brilliant shot out of ten thousand exposures! I think being featured in magazines is a little more prestigious usually, if I can pick up a copy of The Knot in a local store and see a beautifully shot wedding and then go to their page and see consistency, I know that person is a contender for my business.

That same photographer featured in magazines month after month may not win the local “best of” constest here though, simply because of the “Chinese Water Army” of insincere likes and spammed votes. It really aggravates me sometimes.

For instance, there’s a photographer here locally that gets rave reviews. I mean, she does indeed have a firm grasp on photography but her work lacks both consistency and originality. She over edits like a mad woman and overuses warm toning to the point where almost all her subjects look either spray-tanned or just yellow… Yet she beats out tons of quality, creative photogs every year because of the “like/vote” spamming on every local page.

[dont.care]

I can pay for likes too, if I had to. 🙂

[fstopper89]

Yeah, there are websites where you can buy likes! Ha! I’m perfectly happy with my 253 likes, because I know I have quality work.

[dont.care]

Mine is private. I have no likes of public opinion. There again, I’d rather receive praise from the client vs. the unknown.. A Client with local friends is worth 1000 likes online.

[bitchslapoftruth]

I’m sitting at 669 at the moment, and happy knowing that my photos are actually nice to look at.

Here’s a few from the guy who got ALL the local high school contracts for senior portraits. Let me say this: He has a lot of pretty good work. He worked for another (crappy) local photographer, photog was diagnosed with MS and sold this guy his business. He tries to use a flash. I can’t figure out why he gets so much business and why the schools gave him a contract :S

https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/q71/s720x720/1005296_10151523723833231_861181785_n.jpg

https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/q73/s720x720/1069989_10151523746018231_1585652763_n.jpg

https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/q75/s720x720/1005435_10151521465158231_1202060064_n.jpg

[seth]

Is that third kid a vampire?

Those are all horrible.

Reminds me of the one who does where I went to high school.  She stinks, why she continues to get business I have no clue.

[fstopper89]

Those are awful! How does a camera even take photos that bad?! Even when I was a beginner my photos were better than that!

[bitchslapoftruth]

And he has been in business for years. Does all cap and gown photos for seniors and I think gives a discount if they also use him for portraits.

[Worst Case Scenario]

I’m an International Award Winning photographer!

A friend talked me into joining a website based in Cyprus and I entered  their Pro glamour competition. Only me and a guy from Slovenia who took a less than tasteful picture of his girlfriend entered that category , so I won. Mind you he came second so he’s also an International Award Winner.

And last year I gave a talk at my local Scout troop and to say thank you they gave me a “Photography” badge. I keep meaning to sew it onto my wedding suit so I can show people my “award”.

[iliketag]

The boyscout one is really sweet! I love that idea 🙂

I think “award winning” now is really misleading, since anyone can enter an online contest or little known competition and come out on top. Not that there’s anything wrong with it, but in a situation like the one you shared with the Slovenian guy, that is something that he may try and capitolize on that shouldn’t grant him merit. It’s just a pet-peeve of mine, I guess. I think it’s a bummer that when someone says they’re award winning, I feel inclined to raise my eyebrows and wonder.

[Worst Case Scenario]

This guy really takes the “award winning” thing tooooo far. He talks about him self in the third person all the time and even his answer phone message that says ” thank you for calling the award winning William Allen” I can only assume that he won his Kodak award back in the 70’s (there’s no mention of what year he won it! ) And it must have been an award for the best B/W of a father and child taken on a tuesday, cos there couldn’t have been much “competition”. Check out his gallery to see what you really get. He couldn’t even find a dozen decent images to put on his website.

http://www.williamallenphotography.co.uk/

[cass335]

Found this one on craigslist…if you believe his about me, he says he has been shooting for 30 years.

His facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/BixlerPhotography

His photography page: http://bixlerphotography.com/index.html

[iliketag]

Oh gosh… the William Allen one is honestly a great show of why I loathe cheesy studio work… it’s just garish most of the time!

and Cass…. oh… oh dear…
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=363633877019695&set=pb.362264800489936.-2207520000.1374293441.&type=3&src=https%3A%2F%2Ffbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net%2Fhphotos-ak-frc1%2F581174_363633877019695_1691741317_n.jpg&size=600%2C399
This. I have no more words.

[fstopper89]

This girl will do your shoot for $40 with the disk, and she’ll travel to you. This is bad by all accounts, not to mention, totally illegal and dangerous considering this is on a train bridge with no railings!

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=574817775893379&set=a.574817739226716.1073741834.554647661243724&type=1&theater

You can tell she is using a point-and-shoot and used the digital zoom as far as it would go, with all this pixelation! She comments several times that “I think I like how this one turned out” and also “Hmm I edited this one and the next morning didn’t like it so I re-edited it.” She also mentioned one kid fell and got hurt during a session, and during the maternity shoot (linked below) they had a “floating pier” scare.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=316411598493074&set=a.199015023566066.50351.199006116900290&type=1&theater

The same fauxtog. THIS one seriously deserves front page status. That is the weirdest location for this kind of photo (which really, is always a cheesy photo, because why would the daddy be reading a baby book to the pregnant mommy?) and it’s the most unflattering pose. This fauxtog doesn’t have a clue about exposure.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=311646052302962&set=a.199015023566066.50351.199006116900290&type=1&theater

 

[fstopper89]

Ugh and this one- she “guarantees” the utmost quality in photographs.

https://www.facebook.com/mibellavitaphotography/info

Yet she’s completely inconsistent and her photos are terrible.

[Author]

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