Vary New to Photography…But I welcome constructive criticism

[ebi]

CC: I wonted to say all those things too!

newphoto: I wasn’t pointing out your grammatical errors, I pointed out all the stupid things you said in your last post. Unfortunately, your poor grasp of the english language makes it look like I was just pointing out your grammatically errors. I’m sure you are a great mother and wife, but you’re a shitty photographer. Stick to what you do best.

[emf]

newphoto: I wasn’t pointing out your grammatical errors, I pointed out all the stupid things you said in your last post. Unfortunately, your poor grasp of the english language makes it look like I was just pointing out your grammatically errors. I’m sure you are a great mother and wife, but you’re a shitty photographer. Stick to what you do best.

 

Ebi, if you’re going to be a douche at least get it right. ‘Errors’ is a noun not a verb, so you use the adjective:  GRAMMATICAL.  ‘GRAMMATICALLY’  is an adverb, which you use with a verb.

English language begins with a capital E.

[cameraclicker]

Like quotation marks, English needs sarcasm marks.  As he started out with “wonted” instead of “wanted”, I suspect he is “talking down” to her.  “Wonted” bothered me too, but I gave her a pass on single character spelling mistakes because she said she is typing on a phone.  Perhaps that should have been called as well since ‘a’ and ‘o’ are on opposite sides of most keyboards.

[emf]

I don’t know CC, if it’s predictive text that can make anyone sound a bit special. I understand you have present yourself well, both with your images and communication skills; and it was good advise that she needs to improve her language skills, but to mock her like that seems a low blow, especially seeing as she came back to apologise in the first place. She didn’t need to, it took courage.

[ebi]

She came back because she’s the type of person who needs to have the last fucking word. Apparently you do too EMF. Ya’ll can fight this one out yourselves. I’m not wasting any more time on this fucking moron.

[emf]

She didn’t post for over a year just so she could come back to get the last word ONE YEAR LATER… are you serious? I have discussed things with you already and most times you have actually been the one to ‘get the last word’. So yeah, I really give a monkeys about that. You judge everyone by your own petty standards – you need to grow up.

[IHF]

I think Heather is aware that her grammar/writing is important.  That would be why all the info on her website is written well.  She took the time to find properly worded session information that another photographer worked hard on to write, to use as her own words.  I haven’t googled to find the original copy, but I’m sure if someone wanted to take the time to do it, you’d find possibly more than one photographer with the same exact wording on their site/sites.  All I know is, it’s pretty clear whoever wrote her copy, isn’t the same person we are talking to right now.

http://www.hlfphotography.com/investment.html

 

Heather, let’s be honest here,

You didn’t take what either MBC or I said to heart, and you didn’t use any of it to try to better your photography, or your business practices.  You left in a huff, found people that agreed with you and said things that made you feel better about your photography.  This is OK.  It’s what people do to feel comfortable, but NO you didn’t look into anything, and didn’t even try to apply any of it to your work or to your business.

 

Tell me

How is this early shot 

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=279950292106602&set=pb.160113234090309.-2207520000.1377659754.&type=3&theater

any different than this recent shot?

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=405209066247390&set=pb.160113234090309.-2207520000.1377659657.&type=3&theater

Other than having different subjects and using different actions on them?  Seriously tell me the difference in technique.  You did NOT take the time or care to learn about manipulating or using light, or any of the other technical advice that was given to you.  You are still taking snap shots and trying to polish them in post.  You still have selective color and weird editing with in your port. You still don’t finish the job and print for your clients, and leave the job to them while telling them of shuttefly specials and whatnot.  Judging by your port and the all over the place color I see, I doubt you are even correctly calibrated to finish your work properly.  YOU DO NOT put your heart and sole into your shots.  Your clients may be convinced of all your yadda yadda that you type out, but we can see the truth, just as you yourself can.  If you think photographers won’t get bent hearing you say how flipping hard you work, and how much you put into learning, and blah blah blah when there is clearly no progression in your port, you copy and paste other people’s words as your own, and have NOT put into practice any of the things you say you have, well… you are sadly mistaken.  The people that actually do work hard at this craft, will get a little ….ummmm disgruntled (just trying to put it as mildly as I can).  I doubt you even are insured, or collect and pay your taxes appropriately, but yet you put your heart and sole into your photography?  But that’s a whole different subject.

This is not about your character or your person, only your photography which is seriously lacking.  I’m sure you are a lovely person, with good intentions, but you are only talking the talk, and not walking the walk.  People that can see that WILL take notice and take offense.  You are only pretending to be what you portray yourself to the public that you solicit to, but there are people who actually sincerely do as you say you do.  All of the above doesn’t make you a horrible, awful, and nasty person, just a bad photographer.  I can think of much worse things to be.  and just because we can see through it, doesn’t mean we are horrible rotten human beings, that are out to get you either.  We just aren’t going to bullshit a bullshitter.  Don’t take this so personally.  You have lots of good company, and many many people who feel the same way you do about photography, but just know and respect, that there ARE those of us who take a lot more pride in what we do, put a lot more work, effort, and personal investment in what we do, and we care about how it makes our like minded peers feel and how it effects them both intellectually and financially.   If I as a hobbyist/enthusiast can respect the profession, than I expect professionals to be able to as well.  You have a lot to learn, and are unwilling to do so.  You are happy with what you are doing, kudos to you.  Accept the fact that you are not in the same game as most photographers, and chose a different route.  Embrace it and own it.  Go ahead fun with it, but don’t try to freakin bullshit me in the process. 

[IHF]

“She came back because she’s the type of person who needs to have the last fucking word”

No, she’s a sweet girl.  I don’t think that was her motivation at all.  She just struggles with accepting that she’s not being accepted as a photographer, and felt a little exposed since a discussion about her started up again.  Yes, she exposed herself, but that doesn’t take away the uncomfortableness of it.  She doesn’t want people out there to think badly of her.  Like I said Heather, this is not about you as a person.  You’re happy, your clients are happy, and things will run their course.  It really IS ok.  I understand ebi’s anger, but I think it’s slightly misdirected/misconstrued as personal.  I think artists tend to do that quite often.  It’s really hard not to when we find people fudging about, and taking so flippantly, something we hold very dearly and take so seriously.  LIke I’ve said numerous times before I hate fauxtography, not those who create it and fall for the draw of it all.  Lets remember how easy it is for someone to be taken in by it.  All those lovely comments, and all that encouragement and pushing/pressure we get from well intentioned friends and family to go pro and make money.  Then it’s discovered it’s a lot harder than we thought it would be.  Some push through it and take on the challenge, and most do not.  It feels easy and good, and wonderful to not take it on, and it’s encouraged by so many who sell to us relentlessly and by those who love and care for us.  Yes, the easy way is only temporary until they move on to something else, but it still feels real.  Tone it down just a touch.  I’m convinced Heather is a very nice person, and wasn’t looking to stir things up, she just lacks understanding.  She’s just caught up in things, and it’s obviously easy to get caught up in it, if so very many are doing it right along with her.  Some who accept that that is what they are doing, and some like Heather who have a harder time accepting it.

(BTW I have no idea why my last post posted in bold lol what’s up with that?!)

[cameraclicker]

EMF, I was not aware that I was mocking her.  Although, I was pointing out in my previous post that I thought ebi was being sarcastic by writing in a similar manner to NewPhoto.

Predictive text is a bit like a spelling checker, both can be a boon or a pain.  If predictive text chooses the right word it saves you some key strokes.  If it chooses the wrong word, and you don’t catch it, you look foolish.  Spelling checkers are similar.  If you type “then” but you should have typed “than”, most spelling checkers will simply mark the word as being correctly spelt and move on.  In the first decade or two of the PC’s life there were several packages that included context sensitive spelling checkers which would attempt to not only ensure spelling was correct but also that the word fit the sentence.  One of those packages continually underlined whole sentences I had typed and complained that I was writing in a passive voice.   Until this minute, I have not thought about that in years!   I can’t recall if it was an early version of MS Word, a later version of Word Star, Borland’s Sprint, or one of the other word processing packages I used briefly while supporting a word processing pool and trying to figure out which software would work best for the company.  Anyway, all the current spelling checkers I am presently exposed to seem to just check a word against a database and if the word is found they are happy to move to the next word.  I have never found a good substitute for rereading and editing.  Sometimes I am also frustrated by typing errors and broken trains of thought I don’t catch until Submit has been pressed.

I think the reason she came back is because her current URL was posted in this thread and she received an email.

I just ran a Google search for some of the text on NewPhoto’s Investment page.  Whole sentences match http://sweetsagephotography.com/?pp_menu_ajax_fetch_custom_html=primary_nav_menu_item_8 , while in some cases one or two words are changed.  The order of sentences has  been rearranged.  This would seem to support I Hate Fauxtography’s assertion that NewPhoto did not write the text on her web page, but merely gathered up text others had written and reused it.

Why is recycling plastic considered admirable while recycling sentences is considered a crime?

[newphoto]

Yes I know grammar and writing is important, that is why my site was composed nicely, I have always struggled with this. However, I did not steal the wording from another photographer. I buy things from many sites like email templates, and website templates. The info on my investment page was something I purchased from Etsy. I realize that most of you will still look down on me for that. I will rework my website and not include anything that I have purchased.
 
 

[emf]

CC: Sorry, I was referring to the other comment, not yours – which was why I wrote that it was good advice to improve her English skills. I realize though, it did sound as if I was saying your comment was mocking, I wasn’t, and apologise how that came across.

[cameraclicker]

If you have purchased text from a source that had the right to sell the text, you have the right to use it.  That would explain why sentence searches result in other web sites being returned that have exactly the same text.  There is a lot of boilerplate floating around.  Read the fine print in contracts and usage agreements and you will see the same phrases over and over again.  There are only so many ways to phrase some things.  Don’t mess up the parts of your site that read well, just to make us happy.  Dye & Durham used to sell legal forms printed on paper, now that everyone is using word processors instead of typewriters, they sell the forms as electronic files.  Purchasing text is something lawyers have been doing for a long, long time.

[IHF]

“Don’t mess up the parts of your site that read well, just to make us happy”

agreed, probably the least important thing to change Heather.  Albeit easier to change and correct than the other suggestions made here in this thread, and it looks as though your text has been used and reused again and again, and again… but I don’t think it quite matters in the big scheme of things

[cameraclicker]

No offense taken, EMF.

NewPhoto, I’m not sure if you are a relatively new mother, or if that was one of the other Heather Lynn photographers that has a page with a similar URL.  In any case, if you have or will have children, they will benefit greatly from parents who have good communication skills.  While we may be giving you some grief regarding how you present yourself here, I stand by what I said previously about your being taken more seriously by knowledgeable people if you write well.  I also want to emphasize the school systems in much of the world, including America, are not doing a tremendous job of imparting these skills while many competing forces like Twitter and Television are doing a fairly good job of degrading communication skills.  That leaves you, the parent, to fill that gap for your children and you will have difficulty if you are ill prepared, yourself.  I urge you to read well written books, technical publications about photography and anything else that interests you, and to write, spell check, and look up definitions in a dictionary for the sake of present and future children as well as your business.

[ebi]

I agree with just about everything IHF has said. He’s pretty much on point.

EMF, my standards are far from petty, but yes they are my own. She came here for validation, got a little, brushed off the rest and continued on her merry way having not changed a bit. She paid some cash for a pretty site and boilerplate copy and took off running trying to be something she is not. Someone revived this thread and she comes back to basically say she’s got some new photographer to get advice from and everyones opinions are shit on here. And you are still kissing her ass?

At some point, I hope, you realize I am not the bad guy here. You seem to think that I am because of brusque remarks but what you fail to realize is that I do offer comprehensive critique to those that I believe to have some talent or, at the very least, put in some effort to improve themselves. But when random ppl come in and say “hey, here’s four half asked photos of some shit I shot badly displayed” or “here’s One hundred and fifty fucking photos that I haven’t edited”, I’m going to put them in their place. If they come back then, maybe it was meant to be, if not, then thank you for not wasting my time.

If you want to continue wasting your time, then by all means….

[Author]

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