Thanks Doug, Mark. From the one photo I saw, I don't see the evidence that the person doesn't know how to use the camera. But even if there was something so glaringly wrong that even I could see it, my point is that we should pay less attention to the tools and more to the artifacts produced. It is just another side to the old story about how "you must have a really good camera to take such good pictures" or "you must have a really good frying pan to make such fluffy omelets." Toys, tools, fun stuff . . . call it what you like. Most (all?) of us really like our gadgets and enjoy their use. But at the end of the day, I think we all would rather be known for the photo or bookcase or rocking chair we made than for the brand of camera or router or bandsaw we used. The photo caption in question is just the flip side of the same story. Why should it be appropriate to mock someone's talent, or lack thereof, just because of the tool they use? Granted, I've been there and done that. I remember the (envious) comments I shared with classmates about the campus co-eds with wealthy fathers who gave them XK-E's or Vette's or similar, and which they were assumed to be barely able to drive. It just really is a bit silly to pay so much attention to the match or mismatch between a person's assumed talent and the assumed quality of the tool they use.
stan > On 2/4/12 1:00 PM, Stan Halpin wrote: >> >> On Feb 4, 2012, at 12:42 PM, Bipin Gupta wrote: >> >>> A lady holds a Canon DSLR with the caption " You are not a photographer. >>> You just have an over priced camera". >>> This is the silliest thought / caption I have seen. The reality: while on a >>> trip >>> to Europe / UK /Spain last year August, I saw many tourists from Japan& >>> China - guided group tour - holding Pentax KX and KR DSLRs. Surprisingly >>> a lot of them were young girls, some even in their teens. >>> Hey, if I have the moolah and a hunger for photography, even as a learner, >>> why should I not buy a DSLR? >>> Bipin. Bangalore, India. >> >> I wonder where this reverse snobbery comes from? Making fun of someone >> because they want to use a decent tool for the job? >> Reminds me of my brother. In his late teens he took a year off from school, >> was working as a surveyor in the Bolivian wilds. His camera was an Argus C-3 >> rangefinder (probably because that is what my grandmother used.) So the >> truck they were in got stuck and then overturned while trying to ford a >> flooded river. His camera bag was drowned, when eventually recovered the >> camera was too full of river grit to be cleanable. So his next time in La >> Paz he went looking for another rangefinder, wound up buying a Leica M-2 >> because that is all that was available. So there you have this young kid >> with a professional's camera. Back then, I don't think he received much >> ridicule. Later on (ME-Super era) he moved to Pentax gear and since then >> nobody can accuse him of professional pretensions! >> >> stan > > On Feb 4, 2012, at 2:21 PM, Doug Brewer wrote: > I think the point here, Stan, is not that she has a camera that costs > whatever,but the view that, to too many people, all you need to be a > photographer is a good camera. > On Feb 4, 2012, at 1:21 PM, Mark Roberts wrote: > Bipin Gupta wrote: > >> A lady holds a Canon DSLR with the caption " You are not a photographer. >> You just have an over priced camera". >> This is the silliest thought / caption I have seen. > > Bipin, the woman in the photo isn't being made fun of because of the > camera she's using, she's being made fun of because she doesn't know > how to use the camera properly. > > -- > Mark Roberts - Photography & Multimedia > www.robertstech.com -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
