Well, if you happen to be in the bless-your-heart region of the contiguous, it's gloomy out there. And I have no intention of blessing-their-hearts like mad in the half-hour drive past "Go", only to wrap Charlie (my camera) up in a grocery bag and commit myself to solitary confinement in the boondocks. Perhaps I'm just grumpy after listening to three woman battling each other for soprano on this ridiculous talk show they claim is morning news. It's possible. Either way, I'm reverting to a back plan.
*cricket chirp*
Sh, I'm thinking...
I kid. I've got one. You remember how I graced Fort Gordon with my presence at the Change of Command ceremony for a friend of mine and posted the photos on this here blog last week? (run-on sentence alert!) Well she posted those photos to her facebook, along with the shots the PAO (Public Affairs Officer) in attendance took. Without being too brutally honest, I'll skip the critique and get to the point.
What defines the difference between someone with a DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) in their hand, and a photographer?
Or, the question that plagues me a few degrees past a panic attack: With compact cameras (the variety of camera that is a step up from a point-and-shoot, and a step down from the DSLR*) claiming the same quality as a DSLR flooding the market this year, are photographers becoming obsolete?
Hell no. It has been a debatable topic since the beginning of time where the line lies separating the artist/the art from the person/the drawing, or what have you. In fact, I've had more than one professor that presented the topic to a lecture hall full of opinionated college students, and then let it burn through the next 65 minutes. Who wouldn't? It's a ready-made "lesson," assuming your class is more interested than they are hungover.
When it comes to photography, however, the definition isn't particularly relative to the "artistic perspective." Sure, every photog (pronounced "fo-tog" for those of you who are confused) likes to have their work framed and hung on a wall for all to see and be washed in awe. But there are so many varieties of photographers now that being defined as "an artist" can end up being slightly offensive. Or it could be a compliment. It depends on the photog and the spin.
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| Shepard-mix 9-month-old Otto has been returned to PetsInc twice because of his exuberant personality. As a non-profit, no-kill shelter, PetsInc has begun to depend on foster homes for the older dogs that have trouble being re-homed. |
Personally, I'm a journalist. I don't take "pretty pictures," I tell a story. I take a situation or a feeling or a person, and I communicate those elements through my shots. This is what separates the photogs from the picture-takers, the camera-yielders, the stuck-on-Auto fanatics. The frozen smile vs. the sincere grin. The focal point of a story-telling image supporting an article vs. the dog is cute. Not that I haven't taken a picture of a cute dog before that told no story whatsoever. But I've also popped a shutter of an adorable dog with a tired grin stretched across his muzzle behind a chain-link fence, incorporating the iconic collar representing a local pet shelter. Captioned: "Shepard-mix 9-month-old Otto has been returned to PetsInc twice because of his exuberant personality. As a non-profit, no-kill shelter, PetsInc has begun to depend on foster homes for the older dogs that have trouble being re-homed." If there had been no chain-link fence, no iconic yellow tag, no sad-eyed, tired-grinned appearance, it would have just been a picture. But it's a freakin' photograph thank-you-very-much.
On another note, having not been the first to pose the obsolete photog query, a couple posts in forums have noted that the world is always changing. Being obsolete would insinuate that photogs have no functional role in the ever-developing society. Which allows me to reference yet another blog - my ADD connection to social media. Caught in the Information Age, critics and media specialists frequently throw around the phrase "information overload." Our eyes are flying all over the place - and just a picture isn't gonna catch it.
Journalism articles, promotional displays, Abercrombie & Fitch ads are all competing for our affections. So catching an image that draws attention exactly where the photographer wants it is becoming more important than ever. As society's access to highly advanced technology sky-rockets, professionals who are capable of making the most of it is what sets the frumpy accompaniment sitting alone in the corner of the bar away from the eye-slut dancing on the tables. Sorry to be crude, but it's true. There's a reason photography is still - and always will be - a competitive and necessary profession. The capacity to intensify dramatic pull in an image is one that can't be captured a person who doesn't know how to manipulate the bells and whistles of a quality camera, and or lacks the experienced eye to incorporate composition into a story-telling image. Companies (particularly those in the media industry) who aren't coming to terms with that fact are digging their own graves. End of story.
Sources:
Experts 123 - Are professional Photographers becoming obsolete?
This is My Shot - Social Media blames it on my ADD
This is My Shot - Back in my element... Sort of
Footnote:
*Little nugget o' knowlogy for ya: There are three types of digital camera, separated by how advanced the bells and whistles are. The easiest way to define them is how the camera zooms in on a subject. Point-and-shoots have no optical zoom (literally, the lenses mechanically move to zoom in), and depend largely on digital zoom (the camera zooms in much like a satellite image would - it just makes the individual pixels bigger). Compact cameras use a combination of optical zoom and digital zoom. Generally, they reach a certain mm in optical zoom, then revert to magnification in digital zoom. (That's what those mm + 6x and 10x numbers mean on the lens of the camera.) The DSLR is the hubba-hubba of the digital camera world. They range from $400 to several grand, and most give you complete control of the resulting image. They rely solely on optical zoom (hence the expansive collection of lenses we photogs tend to lug around.) *spooky voice:* Noow you knooow!
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