When Pros Attack

I got the feeling there was a coordinated attack on Lesser Photography this week.

It started with a poorly researched article on Yahoo, More Americans Becoming Serious Photographers, which equated buying more lenses with becoming a more serious photographer. It was parroted around the web, but not everyone took the bait.

The truth: Acting like a pro and buying pro equipment does nothing to improve your photography. True improvement comes from learning and creativity. Buying prime lenses only makes you a “serious” photographer in the sense that you’ve just spent “serious” money to solve a “serious” problem that you probably haven’t even defined yet.

Then, this quote from Zack Arias (supposedly - the sourcing is vague) really took off:

“You know where iPhone photos look amazing? On iPhones. That’s where.”

The pro-centric blog, A Photo Editor, posted the quote under the title, The iPhone Isn’t Quite There Yet.

The truth: It’s the photographers who aren’t there yet, not the iPhone.

The most important photos of our lives were taken on cameras far less intelligent than an iPhone. They’re the photos we’d grab running out of the house during a fire. They were captured on 110, 127, polaroid and disc cameras.

When you view photography through the lens of a pro, you can end up trying to solve problems that only apply to pros.