Friday, September 22, 2017

Thoughts (future and today)

Last September, I began taking photos of the girls before their dance classes and it turned into a bit of a photography project for me.  (You can see a collection of last year's photos here.)  It also created a few ideas in my constantly churning mind.  I really do think that at some point I'd like to try to branch out and do something more in the photography world, but I'm not sure exactly what.  I have the time now to think and that's what I've been doing.  Yeah, yeah.  I've been thinking about it for a year now.  The market here is over-saturated for typical family photographers.  You have to be unique in order to compete with the photographer offering mini sessions for $40 (including digital files.)  And so I continue to think and photograph my kids.

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Fancy hair for dance company.

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Ballerina down!  The first week of school caught up to Baby Chick.


I'll be the first to admit that sometimes small things get under my skin.  That happened this week.   Nikon Asia (and Nikon in general) has been slammed online after choosing 32 male (that's zero female) ambassadors to represent the new Nikon D850 camera.  My first reaction, unfortunately, was that this is not out of the norm.  I live in a male dominated world. I worked (and fought) in a male dominated world.  When I first began working for a public accounting firm through a cooperative education program when I was in college, we were told that women were not allowed to wear pants.  This wasn't an unwritten rule whispered to you in the hallway either.  Skirts and dresses were mandatory.  Can you imagine being told that you couldn't wear pants to work in a public accounting firm today??  Times have changed for sure, but we still have a long way to go.

So while Nikon's crappy move didn't get under my skin, the reaction of certain female photographers did.  Several photographers have written open letters to Nikon and while most were well written, a few, and one in particular, annoyed me for a few minutes.  This photographer wants Nikon to know she's a professional photographer who supports her family with her professional photography.  As such, she should not be included in the category of female photographers who are moms with cameras or momtogs.  In addition, it was important for her to note that she's neither a hobbyist nor a photographer looking for extra mom spending money.  Basically, she put down an entire crew of fellow female photographers.  If we are to fight sexism, shouldn't females stick together? Also, so petty, but I don't enjoy feeling like a second class citizen in the photography world because I'm not a "professional."  Am I not worthy of Nikon's latest and greatest because I may use it to make money to pay for my kids' ever increasing dance bills?  Or because I'm simply a hobbyist?

Okay, moving on.

Jose hasn't been much of a storm here in Southeastern Massachusetts.  Some wind gusts.  Some rain.  It's more of a marine storm with Cape Cod and the Islands feeling the worst of it.  Beach erosion is expected, and there are some power outages on the Cape.  We did have the most gorgeous sunset last night, created by Jose's swirling clouds.  

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4 comments:

Bree at Clarity Defined said...

That sunset!!! Ohmygoodness!

This line: "If we are to fight sexism, shouldn't females stick together?" YES!

I don't remember the first time I read about Shine Theory, but I remember reading this, "Surrounding yourself with the best people doesn't make you look worse by comparison. It makes you better." and thinking that I'd finally found something that made sense... we've got to SUPPORT each other and there's room at the top for all of us.

Anonymous said...

I'm a woman who thinks we should stick together and also think the fact that she supports her family with her photography business does give her the right to distinguish herself above hobbyists. What if someone did their friends taxes in their spare time? Would you think that's different from a CPA?

Sarah said...

Bree - That's so true. I always think about who I'd want to work with. A strong team is only going to make you better.

Anon - she does have a right to distinguish herself from hobbyists but the fact that she threw in "momtogs" "moms with cameras" and "moms looking for mom spending money" with hobbyists means she's lumping hobbyists in that category too - which is what annoyed me. I can find at least a hundred "moms with cameras" on IG who have more talent than some professionals - in my opinion, anyway. It's hard for me to compare the photographer/CPA thing because it's too completely different markets. There's a shortage of CPAs but an overabundance of photographers. At least in this area. In other words, I don't think nonCPAs preparing returns on the side (which they can't sign) are taking money away from CPAs. If someone wants their return prepared and signed by a CPA, they have to go to a CPA.

Christi said...

I think your "niche" could be these slice of life, artistic, thoughtful snippets of young dancers (or gymnasts or football players or trumpet players.)

It's something different than the posed recital or team photos.
A way to capture a child's interest and passions. Photos for worthy of frames, enlargements and albums.

You've surely got the portfolio to get started!

I'm photographing a dear friend's wedding in October. I'm excited and nervous. I have no dreams of being a wedding photographer. But I do want her to have beautiful images. I've been reading up like craazy!