Facebook/Flickr frustration.....

Slimbert

Slimbert

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Damien
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First things first, I rarely rant (on here anyway!) but this has gone too far for too long....

Okay, so I'm currently drunk, but still, I'm getting a little (read: very) bored of people gushing over photos that are mediocre at best on Facebook/Flickr.....:gag:

I can include many of my own photos in the catagory of "mediocre", but I'm getting rather bored of people saying how wonderful they are, when clearly, they are not!! :shake:

One of the main reasons for this, is that I have a friend who races motorbikes at quite a high level, and there are obviously a lot of photos of him on Facebook, that are, imvho, sub standard.....that friends of his are gushing over!!

I know full well that I can't take better panning etc photos (I'm definitely no motorsport tog), but seeing the general standard on there, I'm almost at that blood boiling point, where I want to tell them all to shut their faces and realise that they are laping up well below par dross!!

I've offered many times to tag along to one of his race weekends and try to take something better, for free, just to give him something worth having, but he's yet to get me a pit lane pass.....more fool him tbh, but it makes me want to stab the family Labradoodle none-the-less!!!

Anyone else at the point of drowning kittens, because of Facebook/Flickr culture??!! :thinking:
 
I feel the same when I see pictures of all the bands I know taken by people with thier mobile phones, or in one case in particular a girl who has a Nikon D40, so thinks she is some big rockstar photographer.
The fact she always uses the pop up flash and edits the bejeebus out of her photos suggests to me otherwise.
Still, the fans love them..

OMG *** an amzng pic, dats well lush ... etc etc

Ive offered to do proper shoots for bands, but I'd want paying, and of course little Miss D40 just wants her name on facebook...

At the end of the day, if the band are happy with medicore, the fans are happy with mediocre and the photographer is happy with mediocre, I'll just let them get on with it.
 
If you don't like the gushing comments then add your own critical ones and see how far you get....ultimately it is about whether they captured the moment. If their poorly exposed, slightly shaky effort captures an expression or a moment that a technically perfect one didn't then mediocrity wins out regardless. They got that moment.

Of course I haven't seen any of their efforts so they may be capturing neither :)
 
You're no tgoing to get any decent shots with a pitlane pass. Next time he's racing, just turn up and get out in the spectator areas and get the action shots. Mind you even though I'm far from brilliant, I reckon I can get a fairly decent panning shot or 3/4 head on panning shot with race cars, motorbikes travel alot faster though and it can be hard to get a decent shot, I've certainly struggled in the past.
 
Welcome to life, where mediocrity is celebrated in all walks of it. I run a large computer graphics website, and we have a showcase gallery where people can submit work for inclusion. We do, however, do quality control on these and reject images if they are of poor quality - you should see the fuss people kick up when their mediocre, or in many cases, very poor work is rejected. They invariably embark on indignant crusades on the forum, which usually involves posting the work in a WIP forum, where invariably loads of people post comments like "nice!", gushing over the crappy work and further enforcing the artist's opinion that they've been wronged. It irritates me but I've learned to just accept that most people are satisfied with mediocrity as they lack the ability to understand the difference between it and excellence. It's the whole Dunning-Kruger effect.
 
i know what you mean i was looking at a bike page on facebook and there all wow look at that bike , nice photo mate when i looked at the photo / photos from the day event all but 1 was blurred and you coudlnt read some writting in some of them

what frustrates me is when people put up very very bad photos of them selves on facebook and they think there great

the one which bugs me to hell

the sister in law's (i have 2 of them ) both post horrible pictures of themselves on facebook of bad quality (again)

we did a photo shoot of the family inc them as a present to there mother i have never had so much complaining about how ugly they look in photos and both refused to be in the photo my wife kicked up a stink and took alot of persuding as soon as i processed them and got the pics sorted

they were over the moon how good they looked they do annoy me
 
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My favourites are the folks who buy an entry level dslr with a standard lens & maybe a tamron 75/ 300 & then open a page on facebook calling them sleves '' qwerty photography'' :lol::lol:


I say leave the job to them who have earned the right to call them selves a photographer
 
...but it DOES make you a photographer if you put the word 'Photography' after your name doesnt it? :thinking:

...this annoys me also
 
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Nikon_Nick said:
...but it DOES make you a photographer if you put the word 'Photography' after your name doesnt it? :thinking:

...this annoys me also
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I reccon its the same as saying you can drive a car, that isnt to say you can drive it well:lol:

I must admit that i have a lot of empathy for professional photographers who worked hard to get the required skills & then some johnny come lately pops up offering folks free shoots , every one wants summat for nothing, but i think if you want consistency & quality you have to pay for it & quite clearly you get the results
 
Threads like this annoy me.

Are you lot done inflating yourselves up yet or shall I bring in the industrial pressure washer from outside...!
 
The ones that really annoy me are the ones that buy a super, all singing and dancing DSLR only to take pictures of themselves doing a 365, this is a picture of me grinning, this is me grinning in a fez, this is me grinning with me mates, etc. I found one like this in a group on flickr, every time i see his picture i want to punch him and i have never met him!

Rant over :-)
 
Dermots Spirit said:
I say leave the job to them who have earned the right to call them selves a photographer
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I think you're getting a bit elitist now. Who are you to decide when someone is or isn't a photographer? We can get annoyed all we want about people foaming over mediocre work, but saying someone "hasn't earned the right" to be called a photographer is just silly.
 
so from what i am reading and i could be wrong. no one should be putting photo's on either flicker or Facebook unless they own very expensive kit and are fee charging photographers? i put alot of rubbish on Facebook to share with my friends and family moment shots ect. and yes my friends do make nice comments on them, i know they are rubbish and tell them so but we see things differently than Joe public.
 
onona said:
I think you're getting a bit elitist now. Who are you to decide when someone is or isn't a photographer? We can get annoyed all we want about people foaming over mediocre work, but saying someone "hasn't earned the right" to be called a photographer is just silly.
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IMO there are '' photographers'' & people who own a camera , i fall in to the latter catagory , i have no training , I use a basic camera that i cart round in a tescos carrier

if i were asked to produce photograps for someone who was willing to pay for them, i would say no , simply because the odd nice photograph i have taken isnt an overall picture of consistency & i really wouldnt like to make my self out to be something I am not , I use a camera but anm not a photographer by any stretch if the imagination
 
Dermots Spirit said:
IMO there are '' photographers'' & people who own a camera , i fall interfered to the latter catagory , i have no training, I use a camera but anm not a photographer by any stretch if the imagination
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l

I would imagine 95% of the photographers on here have no training , just using a camera makes you a photographer
 
gumbo-67 said:
so from what i am reading and i could be wrong. no one should be putting photo's on either flicker or Facebook unless they own very expensive kit and are fee charging photographers? i put alot of rubbish on Facebook to share with my friends and family moment shots ect. and yes my friends do make nice comments on them, i know they are rubbish and tell them so but we see things differently than Joe public.
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nicely said.

There's a time and a place for taking good photographs and a time and a place for taking snaps to put online.

And sometimes, an ordinary photograph of family or friend can be more than a good picture, it can be a great picture.
 
Slimbert said:
I have a friend who races motorbikes at quite a high level, and there are obviously a lot of photos of him on Facebook, that are, imvho, sub standard.....that friends of his are gushing over!!

I know full well that I can't take better panning etc photos (I'm definitely no motorsport tog), but seeing the general standard on there, I'm almost at that blood boiling point, where I want to tell them all to shut their faces and realise that they are laping up well below par dross!!

I've offered many times to tag along to one of his race weekends and try to take something better, for free, just to give him something worth having, but he's yet to get me a pit lane pass.....more fool him tbh
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Sounds familar Damian!

I raced [cars] for years and worked in motor racing. Now my 16 year old cousin has started Junior Rallying and has got involved with a majorly successful National Level rally driver ... whose press releases and use of photographs are sub-amateur at best!

But would they put two and two together and invite Yv along to get involved? No! Even though she has done some sports photography.

Like your mate, he prefers utter rubbish that just about have the car in shot and nearly in focus ... because they're free and he thinks that's good enough for his marketing and sponsorship efforts!






... on the other hand, be careful what you wish for! Let me tell you one of the unpublished secrets about motor racing. The cheapest way to go motor racing is to buy a ticket on the gate! If someone offers you a free pass, run a mile! Believe me, it'll cost you in the long run!! ;)
 
trencheel303 said:
Threads like this annoy me.

Are you lot done inflating yourselves up yet or shall I bring in the industrial pressure washer from outside...!
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you still about?

I thought you sold all your kit and gave up photography?
 
Yv said:
EHEM!! Enough already chaps, put down the hatchets please.
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Huh?

That was a genuine question. :shrug:

I saw a thread where he was selling his gear and said he was giving up photography. :thinking:
 
it's just the digital I'm selling, because I would like the extra money to live a little, and I've hardly used it at all this year.

These days I much prefer slapping a roll of film into my OM-10 and doing it the old fashioned way...
 
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