[FauxFighters]

Wow props wtf, you scored a serious fauxtog on your first at bat.  You have stumbled upon a gold mine.  Congrats!  Cathleen’s Sentimental Photography has it all folks and I definitely want to highlight this one today!

https://www.facebook.com/cathleenforever3

First off, her about page is great:

“We do Family Portraits, Maternity Shots, Engagements, Newborn Shots in the hospital or at home, Infants, Children, Children’s Sporting Events, Weddings, Senior Portraits,Birthday Parties, Holidays and Special Occassions Photography and much more.”

The Occasions are so Special we don’t even spell it right!  Also I love that she has absolutely no specialization and has the gear to do basically everything that she can bring a camera to.

Advertising.  Cathleen is all about some advertising.  She apparently knows a thing or two about Photoshop (or Picasa, Instagram, whatever) and loves to make ads.  Props for being proactive and marketing, but some of these would make me run screaming to the hills.

Here is an for newborn photography.  $65 to have a stranger watch you give birth, and then take pictures with their camera phone!

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=399812676763953

In this photo I can’t tell what I love more, the generous application of selective coloring to various parts of the photo, the multiple borders and fonts/colors for the writing, or the child whose pose says I’m constipated and currently working on filling my diaper.  Actually, I’ve decided its none of these.  My favorite is the blur effect that was added to the house in the left side of the background.  I totally missed that house being there, thanks to the generous blur.  Its so much easier to just fix that stuff in post than actually composing your shot:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=370439469701274

More selective coloring applied in about the laziest manner possible.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=359691717442716

Not sure what the focus is supposed to be in this shot.  Guessing none at all?

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=407386252673262

Same here:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=407362662675621

Not sure about the focal point, pose, or the reason for it being so overexposed:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=407362302675657

A mothers love should be overexposed:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=423147161097171

Magic levitating suitcases!

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=423145891097298

This expecting mother apparently suffered a tragic accident and only has a thumb on her left hand:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=410346585710562

WTF!

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=410347189043835

DO NOT COPY:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=410308015714419

Thanks for keeping this SFW:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=410422729036281

Animal Photography too:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=348724388539449

Baby’s playing with Christmas lights:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=395986363813251

Oh thank God she does Boudoir Photography too!!!  I don’t even know what to say for this, so I’m just posting the link to the album.

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.377374792341075.85595.261334617278427

Last, but not least, our favorite fauxtog in the only slightly overexposed and grainy flesh, but with 4 borders AND a pink vignette:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=271913786220510

I’m sorry I know I try not to make it too personal, but this lady might be the worst fauxtographer I have seen that didn’t make it to the front page.  Only because she has been on FB for a year with her page and seems to be doing a lot of shooting, editing and promoting of her page and even has a “studio”, yet she seems to have not developed at all in that time.  Instead she seems to have fallen into all of the typical “faux” traps.  Selective coloring.  Lots of vignettes and borders.  Cliche shooting locations.  Tons of props.  No eye for composition of the shot, realization on how to use the camera, or anything else for that matter.

[FauxFighters]

Carrie Gearing Photography is the newest fauxtog of the day.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Carrie-Gearing-Photography/226052530787246

The first example highlights the importance of good posing, or obvious lack thereof in this case:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=422289404496890

Some people never learn not to pose your model in direct sunlight:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=473922866000210

White shirt + direct sunlight = Blown out & no definition

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=474015059324324

Lazy spot coloring for sorta like half the photo:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=474562632602900

Bad posing strikes again for more awkward kissing:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=475991719126658

So blurry, yet still watermarked and posted:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=226186440773855

 

[FauxFighters]

My new fauxtog of the day, Grissom Photography.  Blair has had a FB Photo page for about 2+ years now.  She has improved some, and occasionally has some nice shots, but seems to get a lot more shots wrong than right.  I think she is more of a “natural light” photographer, and many of her shots suffer from horrible lighting situations more than anything else.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Grissom-Photography/165612800127134

I will start off by posting a good shot she took.  Kendall is a pretty girl, and this shows that Blair can actually get a good shot:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=488259537862457

Here is a shot from Christmas.  Some she got alright, but this one definitely needs some fill light:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=496367900384954

This baby looks like an alien because there is no definition to its face whatsoever:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=523316687690075

I can’t tell anything about this kids face at all because it is SO blown out:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=479595125395565

Who wants to see the baby in focus when we can just have his ill lit foot in focus instead:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=474808219207589

Much like the one from the other day, this shot is shaky and totally out of focus.  She needs to really practice on shooting babies up close:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=474808249207586

Light coming through the tree and blasting his face, and the tree branch is obscuring part of his face:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=381971815157897

Photographs in the middle of the day in no shade do not usually make for great photos, as this shot proves:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=381971718491240

 

[FauxFighters]

Forreally, I think you need to look at the total conversation before you just start trashing Roxanne and others.  None of us have ever said we were Ansel Adams, above reproach, not learning, etc.  The issue is all of the people who get a camera and with no experience immediately decide they are a photographer and put up a webpage and start charging for their work.  I think BEG89 has a really good grasp on photography and has nothing she should be ashamed of on her site. Even if a lot of her portfolio was shot with just a T2i, she has a good eye for posing, light, etc.  Meanwhile we are posting pictures from “photographers” with cameras that cost 10x what hers did and are posting AWFUL shots as representative of their paid work.  For me it is as much trying to determine what they are doing wrong and critique it, not just outright insult.  Some people may be in here to grind an ax against the “competition” or whatever, but I’m not.

If somebody is new to photography, I totally encourage it.  Lord knows nowadays everybody thinks that photography can be done with a camera phone and Instagram, so the more interested in using SLRs and photography means more people to talk to, teach, and learn from.  I love advocating for photography.  But I do think many people get a camera and make the immediate leap from taking pictures of their kids playing T-Ball to I should do this as a business.  I personally did not get a BS in Photography, but I have taken university courses in photography, read every book that I can on it, been in multiple photography clubs, worked for a professional photographer and now shoot for my employer.  Others may not have the chances I have had to learn, but I don’t understand how people can honestly post some of the pictures we have in this thread and feel they should be getting paid for it.

[FauxFighters]

^I agree, Angie has improved somewhat.  Her first shoots are straight up abysmal.  Her newer stuff has gotten better in terms of location and creativity.  She has some good ideas, but her technical side seems to be severely lacking.  She still has major issues with focus, white balance, and lighting.  The mom to be shots from the last shoot could be good, if she could actually get the camera focused on the subject.  The kids and the kissing booth prop is cute and funny.  But again we see she has the subject out of focus in more shots than in focus.  My thought would be she is shooting with a cheap kit lens at wide open with a slow shutter speed.

So yes I will agree she has improved, creatively at least.  She is getting a better eye for what is a good shot.  But she really needs to focus on learning her camera, or maybe just getting a better lens.  Technically she is still horrible and in that respect, I think she is still in fauxtographer mode.

HOLY CRAP.  I just realized something.  Check out this photo from Angie’s personal FB pages profile picture:

http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/550502_10100536532127718_382158078_n.jpg

That is her.  She has several others that are mirror shots with that camera.  She is making all of these trashy photos with a Nikon D3!  I have shot MUCH better stuff with my first camera, a Nikon D40 and kit lens, then she has gotten with that D3.  WOW.

[FauxFighters]

Ok, my new fauxtog of the day.  This particular one I discovered when some friends and family had some photos taken by them.  I was so disgusted that I actually submitted these to YANAP, but they never got posted.  So I give to you, Angie Whitney Photography:

https://www.facebook.com/angiewhitneyphotography

Focusing on your subject (or anything for that matter) is so unimportant these days:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=147723141996748

Properly lighting your subject is also unimportant:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=272193086216419

Overexposing the shot makes the subject so pale they appear to be the undead does not make them “look great” as one response said:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=147723281996734

Glad that for this shot they couldn’t be bothered to move the huge branch in front of the kid, or the old board behind him with rusty nails sticking up:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=279083535527374

Focus is so overrated:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=273306092771785

And to show that I’m not just harping on her oldest shots, here is a shot from her latest set:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=313313215437739

This banner should say “All Because Two People Fell for a Fauxtographer”.  It might say this or anything else. I can’t tell because its so out of focus:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=304110313024696

[FauxFighters]

^I agree, you have a “Photography” website or Facebook page, you are spending the time to promote your business and watermark your work, and value your time and talents to the extent that you place a dollar value on it, then you should be proud enough to accept criticism of it along with the praise.  You can never make anybody happy, but when a group of photographers all agree that your work is severely lacking, maybe you should re-evaluate your work and see what you can do to improve.  Believe me, this is not about jealousy!  I’m sure a lot of us on the site were taking crappy shots like those posted on this site when we started, but I personally never put any of these materials on a photography website and charged for them while representing to be the work of somebody who should be compensated for this work.  I understudied with a professional photographer after taking classes with him and worked pro bono for a year or more just to cut my teeth with a pro.  I didn’t go by Wal-Mart and pick up an entry model camera and kit lens and think I was the next Ansel Adams.

[FauxFighters]

Ok, I have been lurking on YANAP for a while, and even submitted a couple of shots, which have never gotten posted. So I will share them here instead. My first submission is Minnie’s Photography!

Minnie’s Photography
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Minnies-Photography/109342052487999?sk=photos_stream

Its really better if you don’t look at the camera, or even in its general direction:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=109623515793186

Light on the face is so overrated these days:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=172713702817500

Dirtiest lens in the world contest winner:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=109583865797151

Who cares about shadows in the shot:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=121158871306317

It appears the Easter Bunny had a rough night:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=109353515820186

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