Home Forums Am I a Fauxtog? "Freelance Photographer"…More Like Fauxtographer

Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 17 total)
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  • #7595
    JanJan
    Participant

    I posted an ad on Craig’s List under the “Gigs” section looking for models or aspiring models to do trade for print shoots with me, so I can build my portfolio. I received a text from a lady in response to the ad who wanted to collaborate with me and help each other with our photography.

    I’m a little bit hesitant to work with her because her portfolio screams “fauxtographer” to me. She says she’s starting out, but she calls herself a “freelance photographer” (so obviously she’s getting paid for her work) and she used to work at a portrait studio in a different state. I asked her equipment list and she has an entry-level Canon Rebel T2I with the standard 18-55 kit lens. If she’s charging people for her work, she is greatly doing a disservice to them.

    My camera body is an entry-level Nikon D3000, so I’m not downing her equipment, but if she was a “freelance photographer”, wouldn’t she have more lenses than me? (I have a 50 f/1.8 and a 35 f/1.8, in addition to my standard 18-55.)

    Her and I are about on the same playing field experience-wise (she probably has more than me thanks to her previous job at a studio), but I think my portfolio is like night-and-day compared to hers. I consider myself an amateur photographer, but I work as a graphic/web designer full-time, so I think I’m pretty good at spotting what looks good and what does not. Well here’s our portfolios:

    Hers: http://www.toyayoung.com/
    Mine: http://www.photosbyanjanette.com/

    I guess I can collaborate with her to make a friend, because she seems like a nice person. I hope I don’t come out like a snob by posting this, but I’m sorry, her work is the definition of a “fauxtographer” as a consumer, I would not pay for her work!

    #7601
    stef
    Participant

    Run away, Anjanette. You have nothing to gain, photography-wise. I only looked at your site a short amount of time, and found no faults except some white balance issues with the 2nd photo of Karim at the lake bed (too blue). You’re very strong on composition.

     

    However, it’s always good to make friends with local photogs. People get sick and need to find someone to cover for them. People sell, trade, and lend gear.

    Just don’t collaborate. You will get nothing from it, and after you set up lighting and posing, she’ll make a bunch of over-the-shoulder shots of your compositions and setups and post it before you even get back home.

    #7602
    cameraclicker
    Participant

    You have inspired me to get out my kit lens and T2i body!  I think collaboration could work.  You set up lights, camera and location then let her put the subjects at ease and pose them.  Do a shoot that’s just for fun and see how it goes.

    A bonus is that shooting different brands, she cannot borrow your lenses.

    #7611
    theflyingkitty
    Participant

    I agree with Stef. You have nothing to learn with the woman. Also, while I am all up for networking, I”m not sure she has that in line as she has a LONG way to go.

    PS – don’t put blurry pics on a portfolio unless they are MEANT to be blurry. Otherwise, all you’re showing is that you know how to click a button and upload a file. (Not you, her. But to folks in general. Good advice for lots of upstarts)

    #7612
    dstone81
    Participant

    I can see a huge difference between your photos and her snapshots. Yours look pro hers looks like every other snapshot out there. I agree with the others when they say steer clear of collaborating with her.

    #7613
    JanJan
    Participant

    Thank you for all the positive feedback on my portfolio! I’ve been a hobbyist photographer, mainly shooting landscapes since 2006, but after taking an online photography class at my local community college in Spring 2012, I’ve moved on to taking pictures of people.

    I might just keep in touch with her, only to make a new friend, which I don’t mind. However, I don’t think I plan on taking her with me to any of my shoots. The most I’ll probably do with her photography-wise is probably have a photo day just for fun, with no money involved or anything.

    I continued to talk with her through text and asked if she gets paid for her work. She told me she just did a 3-hour baby shower for $150, but her normal shoots are $50. I told her that I’ve had paid shoots before (mainly to ensure that people don’t take advantage of my time), but I’m very careful and ask a lot of questions first to see if I can do it, and if I can’t, I just turn them down (especially if it’s for a wedding or special event). I make sure to be very honest about my skill level and let people know that I’m just starting out. In response, she told me that she will shoot anything, but will let people know if she can do it or not.

    After she told me her rate, I’m starting to think that I’m charging too low to give myself so much stress on making my pictures perfect. I always get nervous before doing a paid shoot and I really plan ahead. I’ve been only charging people $60 for sessions up to 2-hours, and it also includes at least 10 of the best shots edited. However, for the most part, I’ve been offering free shoots or doing TFP shoots to build my portfolio, and only had 5 people pay me.

    This is off-topic, but the reason why I’ve been charging on some of my shoots is to ensure that no one takes advantage of my time. When I did my first TFP shoot, I ended up spending about 10 hours with this girl her over a span of 3 days, and I don’t want that to happen again!

    #7615
    dstone81
    Participant

    I don’t blame you.

    #7647
    kbee
    Participant

    Anjanette, I’m repeating what the others here say. You have nothing to learn from this photographer; if you ever collaborated with her, she would be the one benefiting from your expertise and skill. And while I can understand that networking is always good to do, I don’t know why you’d network with someone of such a lower caliber than you. Would you refer clients to her if you cannot fulfill their needs? Would she to you? This is just me trying to work out what benefit you’d get from it.

    I think you are under-charging yourself. As folks have said, there’s some things they’d tweak, but you are by and far a much better photog than many here. I would be happy to pay you more than your asking price for a shoot.

    #8122
    mj-shutterbugg
    Participant

    I am completely new the to YANAP forums, but run far and run fast.  I breifly glanced through her work- it’s blurry.  I clicked to your home page and realized you are way ahead of her.

    #8243
    rookie35m
    Participant

    You are at a completely different level in your career. You’re investing in education and equipment and you have a good eye.  She is another in a long line of Instagram/Facebook trying-to-be’s with a point and shoot who will never charge enough to be able to grow a business. That’s harsh but it is what it is.

    #8288
    Thomas
    Participant

    Collaborate, no. Her work is real bad in my opinion, yours is light years ahead. As soon as I saw your site I recognised the pictures on it, I don’t know how I got there before but I did. Surely that’s a good sign that someone remembers your work subconsciously! It was probably the Pug that grabbed my attention first to be honest but that’s simply because I love pugs! I have a Shih Tzu due to the Mrs having the final say  :o(  lol.

    Anyways, I’ve had a similar thing happen to me recently. I don’t want to post details as the tog is a friend of a friend and I don’t want to cause a rift but he said that if I wanted to shoot with him sometime to give him a shout. I pretty much replied whilst avoiding the suggestion altogether. I’d love to out the guy on here….maybe I will someday but not right now. He charges, or at least tries to (funny story), for his images and they are nothing more than shots with no technical knowledge and just over edited.  Ooooh I’m so tempted to link to him….maybe later

    #8289
    Thomas
    Participant

    I have to share this from her work

    Apparently it’s a landscape…..seriously….I mean….seriously….WTF!
    http://www.toyayoung.com/#!untitled/zoom/cyuu/image12yi

    #8299
    rookie35m
    Participant

    That was the one that did it for me too. I have no problem with experimenting but to look at that image and think that its worth publishing (anywhere) indicates someone that needs to return to square one and learn composition and light theory.

    #8300
    dont.care
    Participant

    sweet–and her/his friends/family/people have created a monster.. what’s it supposed to be?

     

    #8323
    JanJan
    Participant

    So I added her on Facebook. I saw that her and her friends were talking about buying cameras so they can start a photography business. So clueless! Just because you buy a DSLR does not automatically make you a professional, let alone create professional looking-pictures.

    Here is the screen shot of that conversation (she has a regular FB page, not a business page): http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p95/aablis/facebook.jpg

    She’s been also getting a lot of work. I guess those people have been responding well to her $25 special. I think her customers are just as worse as her…they enable bad photography.

    I also saw that she’s been doing this a lot longer than I and have not improved at all. She also accepts credit cards, but charges an additional $2.

    Looking at her work makes me really want to raise my price, especially since I have received very good feedback about my work, but I’m hesitant because of my lack of experience and equipment. I feel that if someone is paying good money for photo shoots, the photographer should be able to shoot anything well at any given time. I still have to work on that, especially with flashes and strobes.

    I also worry about doing paid photoshoots with people who has a better camera than mine. One time, I did a shoot with a family of 14 who met up during the Thanksgiving break and they were taking pictures of their own with a Canon 60D. This was clearly a better camera than my Nikon D3000.

    But then of course, it’s the photographer, not the camera, that makes the difference. I saw that family’s pictures on their Facebook with the 60D and it was underexposed with too much saturation during the editing process.

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