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Photography is always fun, there are no problems, everyone is happy, time is not problem, all clients are 100% happy all the time, photographers loves to make clients mad. Okay, back to the real world!!! All of those are FALSE! Photography is fun, well most of the time. I guess I should add that there are never any “faux” photographers coming into the picture. Oh, and there are never any controversial issues.
Que some of the "issues" in photography...
The Copyright There is no middle ground on this one. Either photographers believe in it or they don’t. I personally copyright my work. Why? Because it is my work, I am proud of it. I’m not going to let anybody take it and use it as their own. If you didn’t know creating an image takes time and is not always easy. Technically the law says that as soon as a photographer presses the shutter button they own that image. But people either don’t give a damn or don't know that the photographer owns the image when the shutter button is pressed. I want to go a step further and copyright my images to be safe. There are some photographers that see no benefit of a copyright and that just blows my mind. Is a Model Release Necessary? Some people actually say no, I’m not sure who these people are! My thought on that is they must be insane! I require a model release with every session I do. I’m not about to wait for somebody to get sue happy because I used their photo for marketing or merely just have it on my website. The ones that don't worry about a model release also say that if you aren’t selling the image then there is no reason to worry about about the model release form. But again back to somebody suddenly saying that they never agreed to letting me use their image for marketing or to allow it to be public. I’ll be prepared if they feel the need to sue me! Better Gear = Better Photos Nope not 100% true. Yes a certain lens will the enhance the sharpness of a photo but can you tell I’m not using a $xx,000 lens? Nope! And yes, a full frame camera will give you more pixels but again can you tell that I’m not using a $xx,000 camera? Nope! The most basic camera can capture a great image if you know what you’re doing. If you can get the lighting and angle right you’ll be fine. And the big one, if you are creative that’s a huge plus. Now if you take the most basic camera go take pictures of a family with no thought it’s not going to be a very good picture. My camera and lenses were not cheap but they weren’t ridiculously expensive either.
We're Friends or We're Family, Can I get a Free Session?
The simple answer is no. I am trying to make a living just like you. My business isn't charity work. There has to be a boundary between family/friend time and business time, if there's not a set boundary for family or friends problems may arise. Every photographer can write a blog that is a few pages long on this topic. Every photographer is asked this at least once in their career. I would go as far as saying more than just once. I will be writing an upcoming blog about this issue in the future. Photoshop Some photographers love it and some photographers hate it. I am in the middle. It's great to be able to remove something in the photo that isn't supposed to be there(don't ask me to remove the girlfriend that you broke up with last week but was in the family photos 3 weeks ago), or give the image a golden tone, make the picture a tone of black and white, or to peep up the sky. But there are some photographers that majorly over use it and to me it ends up ruining the picture. Less is more sometimes. Amateurs Undercutting the Real Photographers Every photographer has to start out somewhere. I remember not that long ago when I started. Photography is already a competitive industry but then you throw in the amateur photographers and it seems impossible sometimes to get ahead. It's a bit hard to compete with a newbie offering to do photos cheap and then on top of the cheap price they give the person all of the images. I'm not doing that and I won't do that. Please if you are looking for a photographer, remember to be smart. Remember the saying, "quality over quantity"? That is perfect for this situation. I see my work as having value and if someone doesn't see my work as having value then they really aren't the right client for me.
34 Comments
Tara
2/9/2018 11:28:10 am
One of my biggest peeves is fmaoly and friends asking to do stuff for free or being invited and being asked to bring my camera to "take some pics for us" I was asked to not be in brother in laws wedding so I could take the pics!!
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Kirsten
2/11/2018 03:20:56 am
Wow! I can't believe you were asked to do not be in your brother-in-laws wedding just to take pictures! There ARE times that family comes before business. But I guess when it comes to money it doesn't matter. Sad...
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2/10/2018 07:09:04 pm
My biggest pet peeve with photography nowadays is everyone creating a Facebook page with "Full Name Photography" after purchasing a DSLR and photographing some friends and family, and offering their services. I understand we all start from somewhere and there's nothing wrong to share your art, but I think it's ridiculous of these people to claim to be a photographer as soon as they buy a "fancy" camera and did some few portraits in Auto, and then overdoing their edits with a trial version of Lightroom or Photoshop.
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Kirsten
2/11/2018 03:25:05 am
I totally agree! Everybody and their brother is a "photographer". It's like, "oh I have a camera so bam I'm photographer"! I despise that they charge so little. I mean I get why they are, just look at their work. Ugh!
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2/11/2018 09:15:15 pm
Interesting perspective. I definitely agree with a lot of this!
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Kirsten
2/28/2018 08:09:47 pm
I'm glad to see you agree and I'm not the only one who thinks this way! ;)
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Kirsten
2/28/2018 08:16:04 pm
I am very passionate about photography! I love it! Saying you would choose me to photography your family is a huge compliment so thank you!
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Lambam
2/28/2018 09:29:42 am
Love your zeal and passion for photography and I believe we all need to know a bit about photography as it comes in all facets of life .
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Kirsten
2/28/2018 08:21:23 pm
Thank you for your compliment. And yes,I agree everyone should learn some about photography as it's a big part of the world and will only grow.
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2/28/2018 09:46:27 am
I completely related to the family and friends comment, 100%. The amount of work photography I have had to shoot at my own expense is actually ridiculous. Many people don't understand the time and effort that goes into post processing. This can be very frustrating at times.
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Kirsten
2/28/2018 08:28:39 pm
The post processing is the hardest and most time consuming part too. It really can wear your patience if you run into a difficult image. Yes, people don't understand what all truly goes into it.
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I recently went to a talk given by David Roark, Manager of Creative Photography at Walt Disney World Resort. He had so many points about slowing down and capturing real moments. He believes photography is not a formal event. He said STOP POSING FOR PICTURES. lol. He said snap moments not poses. He had so many great points. Photography is not as easy as point and shoot.
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Kirsten
2/28/2018 08:33:18 pm
That is so true! Of course the posed shots are nice but the ones where they aren't preparing themselves and are truly being themselves are the best shots, you get true and raw emotion. And no, photography is definitely NOT just point and shoot.
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2/28/2018 09:55:25 am
Love this! Especially the point about needing a certain, "perfect" camera to get the right shot! I've been reading Pinch of Yum's food photography ebook and have learned so much!
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Kirsten
2/28/2018 08:48:08 pm
Having the "perfect" camera is such a big pet peeve of mine. I have done a few photos of food photography and I actually kind of liked it. Good luck with the continuous learning of food photography.
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Kirsten
2/28/2018 08:51:05 pm
I'm glad you found it interesting. Thank you for the compliment and thank you for taking the time to read it. =)
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I am friends with a professional photographer (who so graciously took pictures for my blog free of charge) and she always told me about the Photoshop thing -- how some people were against it. I think --used sparingly-- it can be great and really help people look their best.
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Kirsten
2/28/2018 09:17:31 pm
It's nice to have a good friend that is a photographer when you are a blogger. =) I think that Photoshop should be used sparingly as well.
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2/28/2018 03:14:37 pm
I am not a photographer, but I can appreciate the truth in all of these. Sadly, we live in a world were we need to protect our work and ourselves so copywrite and releases are necessary.
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Kirsten
2/28/2018 09:20:00 pm
Yes, it's unfortunate but much needed.
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Very interesting post.
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Kirsten
2/28/2018 09:27:35 pm
I use Unsplash too and have had pretty good luck with it. I also use Pexals. Here is a website with a list of quite a few sites, www.blog.snappa.com/free-stock-photos/. That's good that you ask, best to be sure. I'm always happy to hear that those who are not photographers respect these type of articles. Thank you and good luck to you also!
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2/28/2018 08:43:06 pm
Such interesting points that I'd never thought of before! Thanks for sharing :)
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Kirsten
2/28/2018 09:29:55 pm
I'm glad to hear this post got you thinking. It's always nice to help those who aren't photographers or that don't know all of the aspects of it understand what other issues photographers deal with. Thank you for reading!
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2/28/2018 11:08:49 pm
The topics you covered are only a minor glimpse of the things photographers have to cover and keep in mind when starting their business. Release forms and contracts are incredibly important and the last thing you want is a law suit. You put so much money into building your portfolio and creating beautiful images, the last thing you need is a legal battle.
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Kirsten
3/3/2018 12:04:35 am
Yes, these are only a few of the topics. There are so many more that could be talked about. That blog post would go on and on and on. Release forms and contracts are a big thing, leaving a lot of clients oblivious to what they even mean or not carrying what they say. People seem to be so lawsuit happy these days it's sad. If it is warranted then that is another story but some of the stories I've heard in the news are just mind blowing!
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Great information here! You definitely deserve to be paid for your work and it’s kind of crappy that people try to take advantage of being close to you. A friend wouldn’t give you free law counseling or remodel your house for free! Photography takes skill, brains, and creativity. Not easy!
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3/2/2018 08:40:27 am
My biggest peeve when I was working as a photographer was other photographers moaning about newbies and amateurs undercutting them. Frankly it didn't bother me. Why should I waste my time worrying about what over my shoulder? No, I chose to focus on those doing better than me and closing that gap and ultimately overtaking them. Sure, I missed out on work because someone was prepared to photograph a wedding all day for £200 and give all the images on a disk. But did I really miss out? Were those the kind of clients I wanted to be working for? No, of course not.
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I agree with you to an extent. It's more frustrating that everyone thinks they can take a few pictures, get compliments and then low and behold they now have a "photography business". They are taking work away from other photographers, ecspecially in a small town like I live in. Being a photographer in a small town makes a big difference.
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