You Must Have A Really Nice Camera. -You Betcha!

You’ve probably heard it before, you take really nice pictures, you must have a really nice camera.

As photographers we get quite angered by statements like this, and often compare it with other insults like “you make really tasty cakes, you must have a great stove” or “you build really great furniture, you must have a great screwdriver”.

Neil van Niekerk offers a different approach, suggesting that the other party is not insulting you, and that they are actually giving you a compliment and that this is their way to initiate a discussion or break the ice:

“My take on this is entirely different. What I get from that comment by people is that they are just trying to make conversation. Now, if someone tells me that my photographs are lovely and I must have a good camera, then my reply is usually, “hell yeah!”.  Or if it is a client (or family of a client), then it’s a more polite, “yes it is!”. Then we chat about photography and stuff. We’re all cool.“

The stove comment (or similar ones) came up a few times on Jeff Guyer’s Crop vs. Full Frame rant and I thought to bring on a different approach that some would call more open.

if you head over to Neil’s blog you can find the idea in a meme form, as well as the original stove story.