Photography is not a profession. Anyone can call themselves a professional
photographer. There are no licenses and not even a college degree required.
According to Ken, you have better to keep your real job and do photography on your own time. The pay is not well for most of the photographers. Just like in the actor business, somebody gets big bucks, but such great things may not always happen to you!!
Ususally people think that a photographer is someone who is carrying a big, black camera with long lenses, an external flash and a large bag/backpack. That's not always true. People may have the money to buy those fancy equipments but it does not mean they are good at taking pictures. Some people collect camera equipments just like people collecting race cars, and it's much cheaper. (Read the seven levels of photographers by Ken, again.)
Therefore, I want to shout out loud!
"I am not a pro. I am not even qualified as a 'photog'!" *
I am CameraMan.
* Photog = photographer
vocabulary I learned from the wedding photographer forum.
I started to learn how to use a camera in stead of taking snapshots since winter 2002. And I got my first assignment as a backup wedding photog in summer 2005. I did not take any class of photography, journalism or art. I am not kidding or pretending to be humble. The first couple I shot did not ask me in the beginning. The one they asked called me to do it together. And of course, we did it for free and it was fun indeed...
If you want to know, I did collect my works here. There are only 4 in my portfolio. And I just recently realized the difference between a pro and an amateur: consistency!! I can not deliver a decent picture constantly. Sometimes when I am lucky, I get nice shots. But I can not handle it to keep similar quality there if something goes wrong.
Let's get back to the business. I am having a hard time to get our wedding shots. I check the price for wedding photog. They are either too expensive for me to afford, or they are too shaky that I would rather kill myself to pay for it.
Anyway, I dear dear friend has left for Chicago and he is not promising to come back for my wedding.
I am still having an opening slot for a "decent photog."
攝影不算是一種專業。每個人都可以自稱為職業攝影師。你不需要任何認證或學位就可以開始幫別人拍照。
Ken Rockwell 說，如果你想把攝影當作職業，你最好還是待在原來的工作上，然後在閒暇的時候去玩攝影。因為當攝影師的薪水低於我們所想像。就像是演藝事業一樣，總是有人拿令人垂涎的薪水，但是那種幸運的事永遠不會發生在大多數的人身上，而攝影這個行業只有比演藝事業更糟。
通常人們誤以為攝影師是那種背個黑色大相機，帶著長鏡頭、外閃和一個大大的攝影背包的傢伙。但是，通常這是不正確的。總是有人可以花大錢買那些閃亮的攝影器材，但是有最好的器材和會不會拍照本身沒有直接的關係。有些人有閒錢去收集攝影器材，就像有人喜歡收集跑車一樣。而收集跑車的人往往不是賽車手。況且，收集攝影器材相對來說便宜得多。(參考Ken Rockwell 的 攝影師的七個層次 )
所以，我要鄭重的宣佈，「我不是專業的，連業餘攝影師也稱不上！！」
我只是一個 CameraMan.
一直到02年的冬天，我才從一個只會按快門的人開始真的學如何拍照。一直到05年的夏天，我才得到第一個和拍照相關的工作，當朋友的二號婚禮攝影。到目前為止，我從來沒有上過任何一堂攝影課（倒是滿多人問過我，也問我為什麼不去上……），我也沒修過新聞攝影或是藝術相關的課程。我真的不是在開玩笑或是裝謙虛。雖然我稱這是我的第一個攝影相關的工作，其實人家根本沒問我，是他們問的那個朋友找上我的。當然，我們是不可能收錢的，不過那真的是一次很有意思的經驗。
如果你真的想看的話，我把我的作品都放在這裡。不過只有四個稱得上是作品的。我最近才體會到專業與非專業的差別，就是能否保持一定的水準。我自己就無法穩定地交出像樣的作品。有時我比較幸運，我會有得意之作，但是攝影條件差的時候（像陰天、室內、低光度……），我就無法保證能交出像樣的作品，尤其是有突發狀況的時候。
言歸正傳，我現在婚禮的準備大部份都有了頭緒，但是還是苦於沒有攝影師。其實我有看了一下在地的婚禮攝影師的網頁，不然就是價格太貴，完全付不起；不然就是價格可以接受，但是秀出來的作品實在慘不忍暏，讓我付不下那筆錢。最慘的是，我親愛的伙伴已經遠去芝城，而且他不能保證能回來幫我拍照。
所以，我還是有一個「像樣的攝影師」出缺……
[external links]
check out what a REAL wedding photog can do:
- fredmiranda
(You need to register to see. But it's worthy the inconvenience...)
作者已經移除這則留言。
回覆刪除真是感動，終於有人回應這一篇了……我正在試著找一個2nd shooter，我了解一個人拍真的壓力太大了。
回覆刪除而且到時候我們可以安排winter training，讓大哥你有熱身的機會。是要從練拍40張開始嗎？還是先從跑位、構圖、測光開始？小心你的hamstring啊！