Three annoying things photographers hate to hear

[KenElevenShadows]

Three annoying things photographers hate to hear

Photographers are generally very kind, helpful people. Although they don’t usually say it, there are three things they hate to hear after someone views their photos.

https://photofocus.com/photography/three-annoying-things-photographers-hate-to-hear/
 

[RABid]

You know, music and photography are a lot alike. I've had so many people sit down at my drum set, thinking that anyone can lay down a beat. Some of them even get up thinking they have really done something, not knowing how bad they sound. It took me years before I stopped buying books on how to operate my new camera, and start buying books on how to see. Now every kid has a cell phone, but very few get any training on how to take, or even how to look at a picture.

[KenElevenShadows]

6 hours ago, RABid said:

You know, music and photography are a lot alike. I've had so many people sit down at my drum set, thinking that anyone can lay down a beat. Some of them even get up thinking they have really done something, not knowing how bad they sound. It took me years before I stopped buying books on how to operate my new camera, and start buying books on how to see. Now every kid has a cell phone, but very few get any training on how to take, or even how to look at a picture.

 

That's just truly amazing.

 

I know everyone would love musicians to play for free. You know, for the publicity.

[Lou Gehrig Charles]

"That was a wonderful dinner; you must have a terrific stove...."

 

My parents are guilty of doing that first one, years ago when they went to a presentation about someone's trip to Easter Island, or some other fantastic place.  The guy had the best photos ever!  Fabulous!  They waited around to the end and finally got a chance to ask the guy what kind of camera he was using.  Turns out, it was a plain old P&S film camera, probably no more than $150.  So they bought one....  Special-ordered it too since it was already out of production, and promptly took it on a trip to the Yucatan. 

 

As it turns out, their photos were nothing special, and overall were probably worse than the ones they had been getting previously from their Pentax K1000.  The P&S had a zoom lens on it that was probably about f4 - f7.1 or thereabouts and required either a very steady hand (or preferably, a tripod) and anything over a super-wide photo had severe camera shake.  The automatic flash overexposed anything that happened to get in its way, and their drug-store prints were no match to the crystal-clear Kodachromes the other guy had been showing.  I am sure the camera was probably reasonably decent - in the hands of someone with a lot of experience.  But for my parents it turned out to be a disappointment. 

[KenElevenShadows]

It's amazing how many people say that: "What kind of camera do you have?" As if that somehow makes all the difference in the world.

 

I got one of those, more or less, this morning. "You must have really expensive camera equipment", which is more or less the same thing. 

 

"No, I have two seven-year old DSLRs that I purchased used. Glamorous, isn't it?"  

[Mike Martin]

I can think of a few more since I do a fair amount of portrait work.

"How much for just a couple photos?" 

Or after booking a session for 1 person "Can we get a family photo while we're all here too?"

"Do you do mini sessions?"

[KenElevenShadows]

Yeah, those are all annoying.

 

When I was stupid enough to agree to do wedding photography, I heard something similar to your second one, where they would keep trying to sneak family members in to get photos while I was attempting to take photos of the bride, groom, and associated wedding party and their families.

 

That was, of course, when they weren't walking around the lights and knocking them over.

[Lou Gehrig Charles]

Ahhh, the pitfalls of "people" photography.  Reminds me why I like to take pictures of things OTHER than people!

 

I am one of the official photographers of our car club (bet you didn't know there were clubs for the Pontiac Fiero).  Shooting the cars is easy...  But when I have to shoot one of the members (or candids of the members at an event) it could not be any more stressful!  But I did get a magazine cover photo last year, so that made it fun.

[KenElevenShadows]

You get that all the time as a photographer, whether you are photographing them or not, unfortunately.

 

And with night photography, you have to constantly explain what it is they are looking at because so many people assume that it's fake.