If you’re the only photographer among your friends and family, chances are they have asked you some things that can be quite annoying. And they’ve asked them more than once. In this video, Justin Mott reflects on three things you can tell a professional photographer to annoy them. I’m not even a pro, but the first one is still super-relatable for me. Let’s see if you can relate as well.
Justin’s rant starts around the fifth minute of the video, where he talks about the three things that photographers find annoying. All three are something your friends and family might say, and some of them can come from your clients, too.
1.“Bring your camera“ – this is one of those requests that always makes me feel awkward and uncomfortable. And I’m sure your friends and family have also asked you to bring your camera to their birthdays, weddings, graduation parties, their children’s recitals, or whatever.
I’m a hobbyist, but I have relatively expensive gear that I don’t feel like dragging with me to family events every time. This is especially if there will be kids, food, and drink involved. Non-photographers often think that it’s your fancy gear to blame for those great shots you take, so I guess this is why they ask us to bring our cameras so often.
What Justin also finds annoying is that people offer him free food in return for photos. Since he is a professional photographer, I’m pretty sure he earns more than a free meal when someone hires him to do something he does for a living.
2. “Why don’t you try…?” – another thing Justin finds annoying is having non-photographers direct him and tell him how to shoot. This is something that can come from your friends and family, but from your clients, too.
I haven’t had these situations, especially since I don’t take too many photos of people or events. But thinking about it… Yeah, I get pretty annoyed as well when someone who doesn’t know anything about my job teaches me how to do it.
The point is, if you’ve chosen a good photographer and hired him, have some faith in them. They know what they’re doing.
3. “Can my friend shoot with you?” – again, since I’m not a professional, I haven’t had these situations. Justin doesn’t have anything against teaching someone and having a newbie shooting with him. Neither would I, and I actually love sharing my knowledge.
However, what can be annoying in this situation is when the newbie takes similar shots like the photographer who was hired. They were side-by-side all the time so it will happen. And when it does, people may comment on why they pay the photographer if a newbie can do the same thing (and do it for free).
As I said, I’m a hobbyist so I don’t get into all of these situations, only the first one. However, I’m not annoyed by it any longer, nor it makes me feel that awkward. I sometimes do bring my camera to events even when friends and family don’t ask me to. And when I don’t feel like it or I can take decent shots with a phone, I politely say no and take some phone shots that they still like.
Photographers, what are the annoying things that people ask you? Feel free to rant in the comments. :)
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