Reposted from a thread on Serious Compacts:-
"The case is as its always been, if you are any good you will make money
as a photographer, if you aren't you won't. Certainly I don't see
"amateurs" as a "threat". Plus the more people who get into stock
photography and the cheaper pictures are sold for, the more money I seem
to make. Far more than 20 years ago when just a few of us were doing it
using medium-format film cameras.
On weddings and portraiture, both are very much "word-of-mouth" businesses, so if you are any good you will get recommended, if you aren't you wont. Whether you are full-time or part-time isn't that much of an issue. Plus there are very few (none?) photographers who ever went straight into the professional world. Its part of the process that you move through the stages. Everybody has to do their first paid wedding, their first paid portrait session.
Going back to "Missy", while what she is doing is partly about this, its surely much more about the state of "internet punditry" and the fact that anyone can do what she does. While I realise that writing my blog puts me very much in a glasshouse, I will throw a few stones anyway!
While there are a number of experienced and talented photographers who offer advice, information, and the benefit of their experience, such as Michael Reichmann, Kirk Tuck and Tom Hogan, there are also some people out there with websites, blogs and videos who offer none of the above. Some of them are often quoted and referred to frequently. There's a particular favourite of mine who gives his opinion on new gear, in front of lots of video screens. However his message seems to be, if it isn't Nikon its rubbish! There was also a video review recommended by a site many here probably frequent last week. This was presented by someone who looked like a serial killer, included noise interruptions and was basically just a re-hashing of every forum piece I'd ever read. I've seen shaky, jerky videos that aren't even in focus, pieces where the "presenter" stumbles over every word, videos where its obvious the "expert" hasn't got a clue how to work what they are "reviewing". Most of this usually includes, at some point, this person telling us how "awesome" the particular piece of gear is.
So why wouldn't "Missy" tell us that becoming a "professional photographer" is easy, and that you don't have to bother with technique, creativity, skill and talent? She's just doing what many others do. The fact that she doesn't show a single image is again pretty typical. The craziness of all this is that people believed she was "serious". But then that isn't surprising, since people take these other idiots seriously. Talk about the "blind leading the blind".
So "Missy" with her mockery and her caricature of a "soccer mom on the make" is right on the button as far as I am concerned. We have a Facebook and Reality TV generation that somehow believes that mundane equals truth, that genuine talent is suspicious and that learning to do something properly is irrelevant and unnecessary. "Missy" gives us all of that"
On weddings and portraiture, both are very much "word-of-mouth" businesses, so if you are any good you will get recommended, if you aren't you wont. Whether you are full-time or part-time isn't that much of an issue. Plus there are very few (none?) photographers who ever went straight into the professional world. Its part of the process that you move through the stages. Everybody has to do their first paid wedding, their first paid portrait session.
Going back to "Missy", while what she is doing is partly about this, its surely much more about the state of "internet punditry" and the fact that anyone can do what she does. While I realise that writing my blog puts me very much in a glasshouse, I will throw a few stones anyway!
While there are a number of experienced and talented photographers who offer advice, information, and the benefit of their experience, such as Michael Reichmann, Kirk Tuck and Tom Hogan, there are also some people out there with websites, blogs and videos who offer none of the above. Some of them are often quoted and referred to frequently. There's a particular favourite of mine who gives his opinion on new gear, in front of lots of video screens. However his message seems to be, if it isn't Nikon its rubbish! There was also a video review recommended by a site many here probably frequent last week. This was presented by someone who looked like a serial killer, included noise interruptions and was basically just a re-hashing of every forum piece I'd ever read. I've seen shaky, jerky videos that aren't even in focus, pieces where the "presenter" stumbles over every word, videos where its obvious the "expert" hasn't got a clue how to work what they are "reviewing". Most of this usually includes, at some point, this person telling us how "awesome" the particular piece of gear is.
So why wouldn't "Missy" tell us that becoming a "professional photographer" is easy, and that you don't have to bother with technique, creativity, skill and talent? She's just doing what many others do. The fact that she doesn't show a single image is again pretty typical. The craziness of all this is that people believed she was "serious". But then that isn't surprising, since people take these other idiots seriously. Talk about the "blind leading the blind".
So "Missy" with her mockery and her caricature of a "soccer mom on the make" is right on the button as far as I am concerned. We have a Facebook and Reality TV generation that somehow believes that mundane equals truth, that genuine talent is suspicious and that learning to do something properly is irrelevant and unnecessary. "Missy" gives us all of that"