> From: Richard Kenward <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
> Now the chickens are coming home to roost 'big time' and every Tom, Dick
> and Harry can pop into his local Dixons, pick up a photo printer, paper
> and ink to stuff into it and the digital camera to take the 'snaps'
> Everyone is an expert photographer...huge sums of money are spent
> telling him he can be......just buy it now... We saw the warning
> signs coming many years ago with the advent of more automatic 35mm
> cameras, but this is the death knoll for huge numbers of professional
> photographers.
>
Reading between the lines most of the tread of this argument seems to be
that there is concern about the loss of income for undertaking bread and
butter, simple shoots. As ever as a professional we are employed to do for
people what they are unable to do for themselves for either time, technical
or creative reasons.
I recently lost a great little earner because the company realised they were
spending a lot of money on me photographing retail outlets when the area
manager could do it perfectly adequately on a digital happy snapper. My loss
but in truth they were wasting their money paying me to do it �properly�.
At the end of the day if poor print, design and photography does not damage
your business why pay a premium for it.
I cannot remember the number of times I have had to listen to some MD
waffling on about the latest all singing all dancing 135mm or digital camera
they have just bought to replace last years kit, which was probably worth
twice what I was working with. They still got me in to actually put my
reputation on the line and take the pictures they knew damned well they
could not do themselves. Outside of professional photography there seems to
be another inverse square rule.
The creativity of photography is inversely proportional the cost of the
equipment it was taken on. IE there is a lot of making up for dull pictures
by spending lots on gear.
You are absolutely right. What the professional organisation should be doing
is shouting out to the wide world the financial benefits to businesses of
using truly creative, professional photographers. If we loose income from
the �quick shoot of the Chairman handing over a cheque to charity for the
reception wall� then so be it. Lets concentrate of the really interesting
stuff which pays better anyway and which no amount of digital gear in the
hands of the in house marketing �assistant� can replace.
All this technical understanding is essential now and will always keep us
one step ahead but in the long run the thing that puts the pies on the plate
is creativity, creativity, creativity. And long may it be so.
Yours in righteous poverty
Jonathan Keenan
--
Jonathan Keenan Photography
E mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
For general online portfolio:
http://www.jkphotography.com
For food photography:
http://www.jonathankeenan.co.uk
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