Wondering if anyone else feels this way…

[theflyingkitty]

I don’t sell my photos. That should be noted first. My subjects are friends, family, and the occasional event. Those are my favorite things to photograph.

Now, I’m not super awesome, but not THAT bad. My aunt and such generally tips me $50. Tips are nice.

BUT…

Does it ever bug you that there are so many “professional” photographers out there who are so very atrocious at what they do and yet manage to pull in clients?

 

(Mine can be found at http://endoflogic.com/b/ which isn’t QUITE finished because I took time to work on my dad’s art site markhwalters.com)

[EvilDaystar]

It doesn’t bug me, it just makes me realize that I need to step up my marketing. It also helps prove that there IS a market for photography if people are willing to pay for some of the crap we see on this site.

By the way, I looked at your site (nice pics from the little I saw, didn’t spend much time there) … you want to get rid of your hero banner / slideshow flash wrapper. Tablets and Smartphones are becoming the defacto surfing device for many people and both IOs and Android don;t support flash (Adobe dropped Android support a couple of months ago). This means that your are not reaching a large range of potential viewers.

You can do the same thing in JavaScript.

Example:
http://jquery.malsup.com/cycle/
http://nivo.dev7studios.com/
http://www.buildinternet.com/project/supersized/

This one is the closest to the slideshow you used:
http://thiagosf.net/projects/jquery/skitter/

 

[theflyingkitty]

The script has a thing where folks without flash will get defaulted to a steady single image. It’s one of the things still on the to-do list.  Also need to get rid of the whole thing where it turns it into a smart-phone happy site. Was trying it, but does NOT work well at all.

Thanks!

[eringlausier]

THIS KILLS ME! I constantly see some other peoples work and think “someone PAID for this?” and they always talk about how booked they are and how busy they are and I can’t help but wonder if they are making it up so people will book more because if they are busy they must be good and then i wonder at the same time….Who says the same about my work? But yes i don’t understand how it “seems” so easy for them to book when they i wouldn’t pay for their work.

[cameraclicker]

THIS KILLS ME! I constantly see some other peoples work and think “someone PAID for this?”

It amazes me too!  I’m still trying to figure it out.  Anecdotal evidence suggests the quality of the photograph is not the customer’s main consideration.   Perhaps this is only the case at the lowest price points, but even so, it is fascinating.

[cameraclicker]

Megan, here are three photos of my Android cell phone.

This is it displaying another web page that I know is based on Word Press:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/camera_clicker/8554146143/

 

This is the page you did for your dad, same orientation:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/camera_clicker/8555254240/

 

And here is the page again, rotated so you can see more of  the URL:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/camera_clicker/8554145899/

 

I only typed in “markwalters.com”, everything else was filled in by the system.  When I use my PC, I get to a very nice looking page, so it must be the Flash that is messing up the phone’s display of your page.

[cameraclicker]

Megan, I tried out your End of Logic page with my phone and it works pretty well!  I get the oranges and purple flowers, and can navigate and see other photos.

[Egglington]

“Does it ever bug you that there are so many “professional” photographers out there who are so very atrocious at what they do and yet manage to pull in clients?”

Well yes and no. At the end of the day, business is far more than your skill as a photographer. A lot of successful professional photographers are very good at drawing on social connections. Unfortunately I am not so great at that. I suffer from depression and social phobia, so for me this is an instant barrier. People make me nervous at the best of times. I have already conceded that I may never be an overly successful photographer, but I am ok with that. Now I just do the odd job here and there and pass my skills onto others, but for most of the time it is just for myself. If someone likes it, then great. If not, then so be it. I think it is far more important to be honest with yourself and your work, and under no circumstances is the amount of money you make a true reflection of your technical or creative skills. So don’t feel bad. Be silently confident in your message and not your wallet.

[Stefany0219]

I think what kills me more than the photographers charging money are the clients who are willing to pay money for something so bad? I know not everybody has an eye for photography or can tell the differences between pictures taken at different shutter speeds, aperture, etc, but it boggles my mind that someone couldn’t see extreme blur, out of focus, dirty props, red eyes and so forth? Even at $50 that some of these fauxtographers are charging, that’s not cheap to a lot of people.  Some of their work I wouldn’t pay 50 cents! I don’t have a problem with people putting up bad pictures but when they try to sell it or claim they’re a pro, that’s a real issue. Not only are they scamming the consumer, but it’s like they’re making a joke out of the art and work put into making a career in the photography field.  It just makes me sad that so many people have become so laxidasical with what they see as quality.  With a lot of these fauxtographers, I would absolutely demand my money back and blast them wherever I could, but the bad thing is, on a lot of these people’s facebook pages, you see people commenting how good their pictures are, or thank you so much for the amazing session.  Really? Sigh.  Ok..just had to vent

[fstopper89]

@Stephany- I agree 100%! I just can’t wrap my mind around how anyone could think a photo that’s that blurry is “good.” I too have seen several compliments on images or on pages and my jaw drops.  I honestly think some people are just not very smart… is that mean? lol. Even before I learned much about photography I could tell what a good image was. I had a curiosity like “Wow, how did they get that picture to look so good like that?” I guess it never seemed difficult to recognize a difference in quality. If I had photos taken and all of them, or the majority, came back blurry or dark, I would demand my money back as well.

[dont.care]

doesn’t bother me at all. everybody has a counterpart 😉 you could take a photo of dog shit, chances are 95% of people will find it disturbing.. There’s still 5%,5% of 300+ million potential clients… That, or however many folks live in your area if you prefer to stay local or 6-7 billion if u care to cross the pond or travel north or south.. 5% is a figurative number, don’t take it literal. The point is; if you think something is good even though it is absolutely the most atrocious piece of shit you’ve ever seen–chances are, someone else will like it too.

;]

 

[theflyingkitty]

Oh, wow. I had forgot this thread existed.

So. Correction on dad’s wildlife art site URL. It’s markhwalters.com I had forgot to type the h

ALSO, I decided to redo mine. It’s still being worked on (and probably forever will as that particular one is mainly a photoblog to play around on) endoflogic.com

Golly. That was November? Wow.

And I agree with you, Nick. the social pressures of it suck. Been thinking of trying to sell fine art prints and maybe to newspapers on the side, though. Earn some pocket change (maybe.)

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