Treatment of newcomers -AND- Responsibilities of Newcomers - Policy - Please Read

[think27]

When looking over the threads and deciding which ones to read and/or respond to

- Please understand that newcomers are welcome.

 

Newcomers - Although you are welcome and many photographers here are willing to

help - PLEASE do some homework first before asking your question. Read the

archives, search on the internet and on Google for information on photo.net, and

listen to the pros. Most of them are giving you honest and valuable advice and

critiques. Please don't take it personally if they critique your work and tell

you things you don't want to hear. Be ready for some strong and honest feedback

if you upload images or give them a link to your work. Be ready to hear some

advice that will make your work better.

 

Wedding photographers -

 

YES - DO warn newcomers about the dangers of jumping into this business

especially when charging money with little to no experience. But do so with

civility and make suggestions as to what they should do before taking on a first

wedding.

 

YES - DO suggest very strongly that they assist or take a class. But do so with

respect and be civil.

 

Also DO make sure you know if the wedding is a situation where the couple will

not be hiring a photographer and want this friend or family member to document

their day anyway. This makes a big difference as to how we give them advice.

 

SURE - it may be a mistake on the part of the couple and they'll regret it later

and YES suggest to the brave soul (friend or family member) that perhaps they

should at least be more strong in suggesting to the couple that they get

someone who has done a few weddings and might be willing to shoot for cost to

build their portfolio.

 

BUT - IF this person coming here to the Wedding Forum is going to shoot the

wedding and can't convince the couple - we should at least help out if we are so

inclined. IF NOT - pass on the thread please. We do more than discourage snide

remarks and sarcastic comments here - we delete them. Furthermore, if people

persist in being nasty and sarcastic - they will go on temporary vacation from

the wedding forum.

 

Please be aware that $500 wedding shooters are not a threat. IF it is true that

there is a rash of newcomers with very little knowledge and experience charging

$2,000 and $3,000 per wedding because they think it is easy - it won't last.

The market will reject mediocre photography at that price range. If anything,

when couples see the results for those prices - they will warn friends and

family to get references and check them - find out how experienced the

photographer is etc. etc.

 

IF someone is being rude - Please email me rather than respond.

[todd frederick]

Mary, I have a friend who is a very good photographer with some experience photographing at weddings as a guest. He has potential talent for this. I suggested that he check-out this forum as a part of his research and learning, but warned him of potential attacks. I appreciate your newcomer policy post here. Everyone needed to start as a beginner. I know of some good photographers who are very reluctant to post here anymore because of the issues you mentioned, including me. I hope it improves.

[conraderb]

good post, Mary. I hope that everyone reads this (maybe including myself if I crossed the line a few times...).

 

CE

[kari douma]

Thanks for you work Mary.

[lamont]

Thank you for this Mary. Is there anyway you could make it become a 'sticky' so that it stays on the top all the time.

Thanks again, this is a great site, and you should do anything to keep it that way. The over confident ones can sometimes make it tough on some others.

 

Donald.

[think27]

Thanks everyone... It is a sticky Donald ;-)

[msquarephoto]

I just made a posting regarding this very matter. I am fairly new, and almost left this forum for the rudeness and just lack of courtesy shown here. makes one not want to reach out to those with more experience because they will laugh, ridicule, insult and discourage you from ever thinking that you'll be as good as them. We certainly can provide our experiences with one another, but since joining, I am amazed at the way colleagues address one another here and the manner they refer to the client gracious enough to provide us a living.

[think27]

Aryc - actually I've really only seen a very small percentage of people being rude to newcomers. But what I've seen is unacceptable and usually from the same people. Some of those people have been banned.

 

Most of the people here are extremely helpful. Honest - but helpful. On the other side of things - we've also seen newcomers lash back with rudeness and insults when someone was really trying to help but the newcomer couldn't take an honest but civil critique. It does go both ways ;-)

[fotografz]

Hi everyone. I just posed a thread on this subject to see if we can collectively develop the on

going give-and-take between seasoned wedding photographers and those fresh to the

business.

 

I would dearly like feed back on that thread, so please take a moment to read it and respond

with your honest opinion.

[hjoseph7]

"Newcomers - Although you are welcome and many photographers here are willing to help - PLEASE do some homework first before asking your question."

 

Old timers please try to give feedback and critiques depending on the new comers experience. Read their bios, be patient, remember all of us were newbies at one point in our lives. Don't allways rate pictures by Ansel Adams standards, that would be like pulling the rug from peoples feet and remember keep those egos in check.

 

Sometimes I ask stupid questions myself, is not that I haven't done allot of research, but it's hard to know everything single little detail about photogography especially if you are not a professional.

 

Currently I'm going to school to earn an AAS degree in Photography. I hope to graduate next semester with a 3.8 GPA. My teachers are not all slouches. They have Masters and PHD's in Photograpahy from some of the best schools in the nation. Nevertheless I feel I still can't compete with the "Masters" on this site.

[DickArnold]

I posted my bio which is a statement of my wedding experience from photographic, business, and marketing standpoints. I think it important that if I am to post about weddings the reader understands where I come from and how much credibility to place on my postings. I also try to share from my experience rather than tell people what to do. Perhaps they can take something from it. And, I try to share my mistakes which have been plentiful so that someone else might not do the same thing. I do have a problem with authoritative posters who have no posted bio. I did a number of satisfactory weddings for over seven yearws and made some money doing them but I never considered myself anywhere near the top tier of wedding photographers and those who read what I post should know that. One thing that bothers me is the posting of terse, sometimes rude one-liners that portend to state fact without explanation. One thing that newcomers need is to understand is the "why" of the advice they get, IMHO.

[jessica_wheeler]

Thanks I am new to this web site and posed asking for feed back, got a very negative comment that he later changed but it hit me hard. Not because someone was knocking my work but that a simple you need to work on ABC would have sufficed.

I understand that photography is (in the business sense) less of an art form and more of a competition but I was hopping for a little bit of love (support) on this site.

So a thanks from the little gals like me.

[kaiyen]

Personally, I'll wait and see on this one. I still have no interest in posting photos for critiques - not at this point. There are people with whom I correspond directly off-board if I need help. I am also intrigued but still pessimistic about the e-mentoring thing, though I have nothing, absolutely nothing but respect for just about anything Marc suggests in general. There are several people on this forum whom I respect deeply. But several whom clearly don't have time for me. I accept for board for what it is, and act accordingly.

 

allan

[hjoseph7]

"Treatment of newcomers -AND- Responsibilities of Newcomers - Policy - Please Read"

 

Are you a member of the board ?

[kaiyen]

Perhaps not the board, but she is the moderator :-)

 

allan