Touching Ad Brilliantly Explains Why Real Photographers Are Needed
May 25, 2015
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It’s no secret that the photography market is no longer the exclusive realm of professionals. This is not necessarily a bad thing, especially if you’re the client, but with so many “professional” photographers out there these days it’s not hard finding a dud.
Be it your next door neighbor who just bought a DSLR, his grandchild who believes his 16 megapixel smartphone camera is just as good as the D4s or your sister-in-law’s cousin who has been photographing weddings as a side gig when he isn’t working at the corner deli, anyone of them has a reasonable chance of getting hired for a low-budget project where the client is mainly concerned about price.
Some moments, however, are too precious to risk with an amateur and that’s exactly the message the video below brings home.
As you will notice, the video went to the extreme by having someone who seems like a passer-by capture the veteran’s emotional homecoming, with his smartphone, as a selfie.
The video is very well made, concise, relatable and funny. So much so that I couldn’t care less about any small logical gaps there might be (the guy taking the photo, for example, wasn’t aiming a gun at his head for the selfie).
What does strike me as odd, though, is the identity of the company behind the campaign.
With a slogan like “Real moments deserve real photographers”, I’d expect to see an events or portrait photographer paying the bill.
Instead, the least “real” (in my mind) of professional photographers are behind the video – a stock image agency called Latinstock.
No disrespect intended to stock photographers, but they aren’t exactly known as being there when the moment happens. They’re the people you turn to when you missed the moment completely and need something that can sort of be pulled off as a look-alike of the real thing.
I’m not a big fan of commercials and don’t usually share them, but advertisers have been doing an awesome job lately. Two other ads I recently shared were Olympus’s DSL-ARM campaign and the clever ad that nails the expectations of new photography gear vs reality.
Liron Samuels
Liron Samuels is a wildlife and commercial photographer based in Israel. When he isn’t waking up at 4am to take photos of nature, he stays awake until 4am taking photos of the night skies or time lapses. You can see more of his work on his website or follow him on Facebook.
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8 responses to “Touching Ad Brilliantly Explains Why Real Photographers Are Needed”
lol great advert
True! A selfie of the photographer shouldn’t take away from the importance of this homecoming.
Actually I doubt that many people will understand the intent of the ad. 99+% of the viewers will look tearfully at the reunion, not recognizing the editorial decision of seeing the wife straighten her skirt, rather than a full image of her. Won’t notice the clutching of the dogtag as a photographic and editorial decision. And won’t even realize that the passerby did a selfie and did a poor crop of the homecoming.
In short, I understand the meaning in the context of this post, but I do not think it was very effective in selling the “real moments deserve real photographers” concept.
Thank you for being part of the enlightened 1-% and sharing your wisdom with us, Burt
I tuned out with the words “real photographer”…
We always concentrate on how there are lots of people claiming that they are “professional” when they are not.
What about the amazing “amateurs” out there? Why don’t we talk about how the digital revolution has allowed the “amateurs” to do amazing things that exceed even high level “professionals”?
Good point! Couldn’t agree more. Unless the author included the great amateurs out there in the real photographers category.
Being a photographer is not about gear but about the person behind the camera. Give Steve McCurry a smartphone, he would still get incredible images.
I… didn’t get this at all. It didn’t look like this guy wasn’t there to capture them. Just a random neighbor? who was going to post somewhere that “Hey soldier dude is home ain’t that cool?”. This didn’t do anything for me to impress upon having a “proper” photographer. It was more like “don’t rely on some guy riding his bike to stop and get a good photo of you when it counts”. I don’t know, just fell flat.