Criticizing the competition

A photographer (who happens to be a forum member) was openly criticized by another photographer (on their business website) and portrayed as a "Craigslist Photographer". I'm thinking they are going to lose business over this affair...

http://picturetoburn.c​om/?p=1250

You should be wearing hip-boots before wading into that piece of self-serving garbage.

I don't have a fancy degree hanging on my wall either. Guess I'd better sell my gear and keep my head down. What a pile of rubbish.

Two things struck me reading that.

1. For the average potential customer, 2 paragraphs and they would have switched off and gone elsewhere.

2. Using 'diss' instead of disrespect is so out of place I thought I was reading FaceBook.

It really would have been tl;dr for most people I guess.

Over the last 40 years, technology has converged and changed communications beyond recognition. It has done the same for photography, art and fine art and the media they are produced in from electonic to countless different printed media.

Sounds like someone needs to recognise the fact and accept that there are other types of expression that encompass more than just metering, clicking, developing and printing nowadays. And each of our methods of expression are as valid as all the others. To mix a couple of metaphors, the proof of the pudding.. and each to his own.... The results are usually entirely subjective for the majority of work except when you see a WOW that we all like. So showcase your stuff and leave others to it unless they ask for critique.

I used to think that too much pp took it all away from photography but when I thought more deeply about it, pp really merges the old choice of film media and development and allows us to experiment at little cost other than our time. What my dad would have given for that in his old shed with his developing tank and bottles of chemicals

I am only a hobbyist but I would love to be good enough to sell stuff.... maybe sometime later....till then I'll get my inspiration one way or another.

What he thinks client's priorities are in picking a photographer:

1. Nostalgia
2. Advanced concepts of post processing
3. How it was done in the past
4. His opinion on other photographers
5. "Pure" photography (whatever that is?)
6. How much work other photographers "crank out"
7. etc. etc. etc.

What the clients ACTUAL priorities are:
1. Do I like their portfolio?
2. Can I afford them?

Not to mention I can't get his portfolio to load. That could be me though because I am at work and on internet explorer which is a PoS.

lol whoever that is their portfolio stinks compared to the photographer they are calling out. Just because you don't have formal education you can't be good! ROFL.

ROFL!

Nice "natural" shooting here:

http://picturetoburn.c​om …ortfolio=portfo​lio-post-3

Nice HDR there...

What is this crap???

http://picturetoburn.c​om/?avada_portfolio=al​bo-21

Numenorean wrote in post #17091873
What is this crap???

http://picturetoburn.c​om/?avada_portfolio=al​bo-21

Casper?

edit: I guess casperetta in this case.

Wow... and to think I'm still recovering after seeing the 2nd and 3rd images on their home page slideshow.

What the article "really" said...

I'm bitter and twisted because I wasted money on a degree and now struggle with making money from photography yet others leant with no formal education and they are better at business than me. I'm also angry other people are better photographers than me.

Talk about a way to make sure quality customers run away from your business...

memoriesoftomorrow wrote in post #17091892
Wow... and to think I'm still recovering after seeing the 2nd and 3rd images on their home page slideshow.

What the article "really" said...

I'm bitter and twisted because I wasted money on a degree and now struggle with making money from photography yet others leant with no formal education and they are better at business than me. I'm also angry other people are better photographers than me.

^Exactly this...

Wow. I've honestly noticed this from a lot of photographers who are "getting up there" in age. They think that because we don't have our own dark rooms and spend hours developing our film we have no place in the business. We are "craigslist", or "instagram" photographers. To me, these type of people no longer have a place in the business, because they are unwilling to change and adapt to where the business is at. This specific example of criticism seems especially unnecessary, since these photographers are two completely different genres. One appears to be a street and still life photographer, and the other is a family and newborn photographer (rated best in Las Vegas by CBS News I might add, hardly CL material). This would be like bluegrass guitar player criticizing Jimmy hendrix for using pedals that changed the stock sound of his guitar.

Looks like he does a lot of pp in his work as well

losangelino wrote in post #17091918
Looks like he does a lot of pp in his work as well

Yeah, but he made a caveat in the post saying that that's his other shooter's stuff and she needs that crutch to make her images work. He's clearly above such pedestrian machinations.