One of the things commercial photographers complain about is the low barrier for entry into the photography business. Today, anyone and their cat can buy a digital camera and immediately call themselves a “professional photographer”.
The reason for this is technology. The hi-tech stuff packed inside today’s cameras is amazing. But technology is just a tool and not an end point. No one looks at a photo and exclaims, “Wow, look at that focus!” or “Gee, that picture has a great white balance!”
If a photographer doesn’t know when (or why) to push the camera’s shutter button then that photographer is lost and will usually compensate by pushing the shutter button non-stop. If they can’t do quality then they’ll do quantity and hope something turns out.
Some monkeys got hold of a camera: story here and pictures here. The monkeys shot several hundred frames and the photographer edited the results. The first photo is quite funny.
My points are:
• anyone (or anything) can get lucky if they shoot enough frames.
• trial-and-error is not an acceptable business practice.
• quantity is not a substitute for quality.
• a reshoot is always expensive.
A true professional photographer uses experience, skill and talent and doesn’t rely (too much :-) on luck. Professional photography is much more than just proper focus and good exposure.
Any time a client hires an amateur to produce their business photography or corporate photography, that client is monkeying around with both its money and business image.
