> > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Frantisek Vlcek" > Subject: Re: photography vs cameras > > > > > But it still drives me crazy when, as you said, nobody in their > sane > > mind without the knowledge and feel would try to repair their car, > but > > anybody with a camera thinks he is the photographer. Where has the > > profession's pride disappeared? > > This trend has been going on for about 40 years. We called them > weekend warriors when I was active in the trade.
I'd have to class myself as a "weekend warrior", rather than as a professional photographer; like many (most?) on this list photography isn't my day job (and if it were I'd be shooting Canon, not Pentax). > As soon as professional photographers adopted 35mm as their camera of > choice, they opened the door to anyone with a camera butting in on > their turf, and as a profession, got exactly what they should have > expected. > > The advances in camera technology over the past couple of decades or > so has only made it worse, actual photographic knowledge (you know, > that stuff I harp about from time to time?) is no longer a > prerequisite, since the cameras themselves are able to take care of > all the technical details, and photography is now pretty much a point > and shoot game. "F8 and be there" is still worth more than the best bag of equipment. But you still have to point in the right direction, and shoot at the right time. It helps if you've got the right lens on the camera, too. Beyond that, you're getting down to the fine details. For some shots I can't match the pros, but that's largely because of equipment limits (which, in turn, are enforced by budget constraints); my 250-600 is a fine piece of glass, but a 600/f4 or 400/2.8 would give me a few more options in manipulating depth of field or allow faster shutter speeds. Most of the time, though, I produce shots that stand up to comparison pretty well against all but the best practitioners in my chosen arena.
