Norman Childs wrote
Dear Norman"Professional photographers are expensive so consider using a good amateur.Try your local camera club, further education college or camera shop notice board. There is often little difference in the quality of the final product, especially since enthusiastic amateurs aren't under the same time constraints as the professionals.
I always enjoy your thought provoking postings and encourage you to continue to open the odd bottle or two...the red stuff is meant to be good for prolonging life too!
Like you I am sickened by the attitude of Freeserve and Barclays Bank but have to ask this question of all professional photographers in the UK:
Do not photographers in general bring this attitude upon themselves, and especially in this digital imaging time what have we to offer the great general public? After all they too can buy a digital camera, so what's so special that they should pay us to do what they think they can so easily do?
We should only expect the market to pay what they preserve our value to be. You clearly have cracked that one! If their perception of a professional photographer is based on 'faking it', certain films, the antics of the press mob, the give-away portrait come-ons, the supply of your professional pictures for a by-line in mags, the 'semi professional' weekend wedding photographer doing a bit of photography on the side or the porn scene what can we expect?
In an age where it seems any shop on the high street is poaching on the preserve of the next, is it any wonder that everybody and everybody is getting in on the act of being a photographer? The word professional is degraded to mean anyone who sells something for money, nothing to do with professional abilities or professionalism any longer sadly.
What is my professional body the BIPP doing to address this....sweet ** from where I sit. Far too interested in back slapping, and gaining letters after one's name than SELLING the concept of professional ability and accountability to the buying public to my mind. Selling is not a dirty word guys, it's what pays the bills and allows us to continue to be professional image makers. OK it's that time of year when I and many others receive the yearly invoice inviting our financial support. It is becomes increasingly difficult for me to find a big enough reason for continuing this support which I have less and less willingly given in recent years since joining in about 1970.
It's up to each one of us to demonstrate in every way we can that we do have special skills and abilities to offer, and these are available on the payment of a professional level of fee. Digital imaging has made it all the more important that this message is put across whatever your contribution is in the world of professional image making. The same will go for the designers here too I imagine.
A very happy and prosperous digital 2003 to all Prodigers wherever you are!
Cheers
Richard
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