Great Letter

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Posted by: garyfong1 Original: 3/27/2012 8:58 PM Views: 1330 Comments: 4 eProps: 8 Read Comments Post a Comment Back to Your Xanga Site

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2 eProps from: Kellsbella crollinsphoto tracyegibson jonasjschreiber

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Dear Gary,

Morning, responding to your entry on Xanga about 'spraying and praying' and amateur photographers claiming themselves to be 'professional' photographers. Last July I was hired by a remove family member (Uncles ex wife) to shoot her registery office wedding. On the day I was nervous, I was more scared than anything of mucking the whole wedding up by producing less than acceptable photos, I charged her £150.00/$237.47 Canadian Dollars because I didn't want to be out of my depth and be in such a position where I was unable to repay her the money if she demanded a refund.

Every time I look back at the photos I took, I am ashamed, I'm distraught that I'd let myself down and let her down. Although upon handing he images over she said she was overwhelmed, I still felt somewhat bad for charging her for a in totally honesty, and please do excuse my language but a shit job!

I've never once claimed to be a professional photographer, in fact at times when possible clients have approached me looking for a professional photographer, I always point them in the direction of one of my associates who are to me, professional photographers.

I respect you as a photographer and businessman and I your debates always interest me which one reason I'm writing this mail. You mentioned something yesterday or a few days ago saying that conventions or something similar should have staged wedding sets for which photographers could take photos of the set to use on template sites or something along those lines. I believe that would be a superb idea and follow that through with staged weddings with actors to teach up-coming photographers wedding photography techniques.

To show how ashamed of my work I am, I'll share a link and please, if you feel the need to use it as an example to show other photographers the mistakes amateur photographers make.

Benjamin.

Here is the link to his gallery. Honestly, it was nowhere as terrible as he was making it sound, but he does have a point.

Posted 3/27/2012 8:58 PM - 1330 Views - 8 eProps - 4 comments

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4 Comments

I'm no photographer, so all I noticed was headless people. I seem to be very talented at taking those types of shots. Wasn't that helpful?

Posted 3/27/2012 9:52 PM by Kellsbella - - reply

Some images were totally washed out and some needed fill flash badly.

Posted 3/28/2012 5:32 AM by crollinsphoto - - reply

Well first off, they are only headless in the thumbnails on this page. ;) Actually, alot have too much head room but as Gary said, they weren't as bad as he made them sound. Benjamin did make an attempt to retouch/filter some of the photos and kuddos to him! He realized his work needs some 'work'. You don't grow from saying I am a rockstar, this is my work, take it or leave it. You grow from study and practice. (BTW, if you are reading this Benjamin, that was an interesting group and if you have a group like that again and are going to use filters for retouch, for future ref. you may want to try an edgier look for a few of the shots. Maybe add some grundge or super over sharpening-NOT THE BRIDE! Unless she is very young and funky ;)

On another note: Gary I took your class at Texas School yeeeeeears ago (film days. Ha!) and was comparing it to the 'modern look' they preach now. Their 'spray and pray' was your 'photojournalistic' BUT the diff being that you made sure you were in the right place at the right time, knew the right exposure and didn't have to take 30 shots to get the one. No shooting at random (film!!!). Also, the use of fisheye lenses and angles only when appropriate. I noticed in the email to DJ how the angles were done to the extreme and overused. That is one of my pet peeves. Angles are ok on extreme close ups of certain details or fun dancing candids, but not on posed shots!! My sister's photog (I was in the wedding) did wonky angles on some of the 'alter type' shots. My sister hated it and since she had a DVD of the images ended up sending several to me to 'fix'. Bleh..With every Uncle Bob owning a higher end camera these days, EVERYONE thinks they are professional. They only way to set yourself apart and stay in business is to LEARN! Learn exposure and metering! Learn posing. Learn the flow of a wedding or learn when a two year old has reached the end of her rope (if you are a portrait photog) and STOP shooting when you are there! Learn quality not quantity!

Off my soap box. ;) BTW, congrats on your beautiful babies Gary!

Tracye Gibson

Posted 3/28/2012 6:46 AM by tracyegibson - - reply