The Damage Being Done...

[macka]

...to the business of Photography.

I recommend to you the interesting article entitled "Photography's Vanishing Middle Class" currently on the front page of page of Strobist: http://strobist.blogspot.com/ (You have to scroll down a little)

A good read on the potential harm of (certain) stock photo sites practically giving photos away at a profit of as little as 20c for the photographer. I also think about this when I see TV news programs and newspapers actively encouraging people to send in their photos (for nothing, of course... nothing but the benefit of that news source in any case.)

Cheers,

[Glen]

Kris, have noticed exactly the same thing recently, news programs and papers saying send your images in, without even the benefit of being credited for them! Unbelievable, but a great opportunity to fluke a great news shot for no money. I can see the papers defence "but they emailed/MMS it to us your honour, we never offered to pay for it"

[radar]

It is a good read.

Similar thing has happened in the computer business, probably in a lot of professions. Just have a look at the computer fairs, the moms and pops are building their own computer boxes. However, there is still plenty of room for the pros that are able to put together your networks, software, etc. Same thing is happening in photography, the pros that have a niche are still needed.

cheers,

André

[daniel_r]

Radar, I was thinking the same thing while reading that article.

Unfortunately there seems to be a long term trend toward de-skilling IT as well with the continued rise of the Wizard Monkey - "yes, very good you just clicked yourself happy through setting up Active Directory and Exchange and and and... head pat for you" but many of them are completely stuffed the moment it needs genuine analysis and diagnostics performed.

Give them a proper Unix build and they'll be trying to find their .exe's in C:\


Photography is going through the same phase right now. The end to end photoimaging technology (pre-capture -> final output) is more accessible than ever, and in a number of ways much easier to use. You no longer have to tinker with your dev/stop/fix to get the correct ratio and temp, you just bung in a couple more ink cartridges and your colour profiled print pops out give or take a few head cleans.

With the sheer number of images being produced at such a low cost per unit and the ease of electronic distribution, two things are happening - the age of mediocre photography; and the rise of the serious amateur.

You see this all the time on flickr - there's some seriously talented group pools contrasted against some of the utter crap that you see flash past on the "recent uploads" page.

I guess it's one of those cases where people want to pay peanuts... and you get monkeys... at the same time, some of the work produced is only worth peanuts

[ozczecho]

macka, thanks for the link....great article, and certain points ring through...

I have a few shots on flickr and once in a while I get an email from people asking if they can use an image on their commercial websites. I never hear back once I say sure but it will be $x dollars for 12 months