My favorite local fauxtog

[Gnork]

Yeah, I type “y’all,” too. It’s a contraction of “you” and “all,” so it requires an apostrophe. I wouldn’t use it in a term paper or newspaper article, but I use it in conversation. Basically, we Southerners are weird.

 

[dont.care]

Haha, oopss.. I’ve went and spelt my “Ya’ll” wrong. Apparently, I fail at my southern roots ;[

[JCFindley]

See, I think it has come so far in truly southern terms to be its own word now and simply stands alone as yall.

(It could also be that I am far to lazy to put in the apostrophe since it doesn’t come up on my droid like it will with can’t or doesn’t)

[dont.care]

Lol.. Yea, “Southern Charm” for many, has died and reincarnated into rednecks.

[JCFindley]

Yupp, but as my cousin aptly put it “I am to educated to be a redneck; I am a ruralist.”

But then, uneducated grammar when associated with a Brooklyn accent really isn’t much better.

 

[dont.care]

I think the worst accent for bad grammar is Bostonian.

 

[fstopper89]

I live in WI and people always make fun of our “accents” on TV… the thing is, there are people who speak like that but not most. I speak like the news reporters on TV speak. Some people here say crap like “I seen dat over there.” ugh, makes us all look uneducated, lol!

[Thom]

Blueeyes1128: If I’ve offended you, I apologize. I realize this is just a “hobby” for you, and you seem to have fun doing it, it is serious business for a lot of us. Mostly, the frustration comes from fauxtographers clogging up the system of people who’ve sacrificed a lot to learn and get better. What the good natured hobbyist don’t understand is that potential clients have to sift through this muck in order to get the ones worth their $. And when we see poor examples of shots AND that clients had paid $ for them, it goes against every fiber of our common sense. So the lashing out may be directed more towards clients’ poor taste/instruction/demands/ignorance than your talent. Just something to consider when you market yourself as a photographer.

[picarusslim]

Can’t believe you dropped in the fact your partner is disabled, thats quite low. Whilst it might come across bitchy to you people here take pride in what they do and take exception to shoddy work. It looks like you do charge for what you do so you should accept criticism, who knows you might learn something. 😉

[nesgran]

My entire knowledge of Wisconsin is from a classmate in high school who said to another class mate who’d lived in Wisconsin for some time, “everyone in Wisconsin is fat”. In fact that is the only thing I remember her saying.

[iliketag]

@everyone else: Omigosh it gets really hilarious when you guys get going on something completely random like that. It makes me laugh! The “I’ll just take my bowler hat and go” was the best I think. 🙂 I love you guys.

 

———————–

@Blueeyes:    You have to understand something: when you put your work out there for all the world to see, sometimes it winds up in the hands of unapologetic mockers. We are those people (mostly-unapologetic, I would say. We’re not too far gone. We’re not 4Chan.). Yes, there are some things that are mean spirited but if you were to approach us and ask for constructive criticism, the regulars here would provide it.
Even if this is a hobby for you… if you have charged, you fall into the category of “Fauxtographer”. That is someone who has neither the technical skills, nor eye, to provide a professional service to clients for an exchange of money… yet they are marketing themselves as such.

Go back to just shooting for fun, stop charging and spend some quality time with your camera. Invest in a beginning end 50mm lens and learn to love those wide open apertures and get used to focusing manually or spending the time making sure what needs to be in focus is and everything else is not distracting. Practice your composition and please, just trust us on this one, lose those terrible filters.

No one is running your name into the ground. We are not approaching clients in your local area and telling them to avoid you. We are mocking the work here. Is that mean spirited? A little. But none of us are running around on craiglist, or facebook, or anywhere else shouting “Hey! See this?! Avoid at all costs!”
If you were to look at another local photographer’s work (a proven, reputable PHOTOGRAPHER), would you say what you do is up to standards? Are you providing a quality product? Nevermind that they say they love the shots, nevermind that friends and family are proud of what you do. Those are people who view through the lenses of loving you, not necessarily the work… Look at your photos and honestly say if they’re something you would enter in a fair or other competition with confidence in both your skills and your artistic style.
I think if you were very honest with yourself and you took a deep breath, you would let out a long sigh and say “No…”.

But you can get there! That’s always the good news! You need to get involved with more technical aspects and find people who understand that! They can help you learn and grow and fall back in love with the craft while getting better.
The work you are cranking out now is poor quality. But, if you’re up for it, many of us are completely willing to provide constructive criticism… you just need to be open to it.

[blueeyes1128]

I am open and would love to learn more but some of the people i do tell me how they want there pics and how am i suppose to tell them no that want look good i tried that and made  alot of people mad so i just do what they want me to do but yes i would love to learn some new stuff on how to capture certain things!!  and no i never ever thought my pics were that good and when people tell me they are i don’t see it, it’s not how i see the pic when i take it but they never want it any other way so all the help some of you can give me would be appreciated!!

 

[picarusslim]

Never let anyone tell you what to take and how to take it. A builder wouldn’t let someone tell them how to put up a wall. Sure, you’ll say what needs doing but it’s up to the builder to choose materials and how they put it up. If someone asks me to take shots of them I’ll bare in mind what they want the end product to be but at the end of the day if they knew how to take a pictures they wouldn’t be asking me, even if there’s no cash involved, it’s my work and my name attached to it.

At least you don’t think you’re David Bailey, that’s a start. Just read up on the basics and build on them. Ask here and other forums, don’t be defensive, i’ve learnt a lot from other people and I’ve learnt even more from being directly criticised.

I’m no professional, if I charge it’s for a band or a friend of a friend and more often than not i’ll refer to a professional, but I have a passion for what I do. You need to find this in your work, consider what you do as your art rather than just taking photos. And for sake of us, learn how to take focus and use an image editor!! ; )

I’m sure the many pros and experts here will help you, they’re a friendly bunch.

[Worst Case Scenario]

A little while back Brown eyed girl mentioned that most fauxtogs can’t string together a post using proper English. I nearly commented then, that there’s a U in colour if you use PROPER  English : )

Which reminds me that I have a lot of questions that you Yanks might be able to answer. I think this thread has been highjacked enough so I’ll start a new one in the main discussion area.

[Sarah]

Don’t market what you don’t want to sell. If you don’t like the look of selective coloring for example then do not show it as something you have done.

[Author]

Posts