Who just bought a camera and wannabe professional photographer?


sjackal

Senior Member
Jul 9, 2008
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A damn huge mess up, this time round the whole nation is embarassed:

Solstice - Creative Entertainment • Outrage Over The Photographs Of The United States Olympic Team

If I am not wrong, Joe Klamar is not a newbie, he is an experienced pro in the news and journalism genre, BUT ending up in a position requiring to conceptualized portraits in studio environment for advertising and publicity purposes, sometime totally different from his own specialty.

If a seasoned pro can mess up this big, what makes the guy who bought a camera recently thinks he should be offering his services for money? Current situation everywhere is saturated with many excited new hobbyists trying to be professional photographers. Not trying to be a hater but hey, just sick of the dilution of the value of photography.
 

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ya these were horrible.

but i believe the guy is not a portrait photographer, but a European sports photographer.

how his photos got cleared by getty staff is a big mystery.

they really look like some one that just started playing around with lights.
 

The art editor should have been shot on sight for hiring a photographer who is going to be working in unfamiliar territory. Those shots aren't bad, they are woeful. As for Getty, bunch of good for nothing (unprintables) they are.
 

I dont blame him....sometimes have to do the impossible.

The one that should be blame is the $%^&*( who pushed the photographer into doing it.

In all likelihood, this individual force him to take their photos but since portraiture was needed...how come there wasnt a portrait photographer to partner with him for that session? This sort of thing is arranged way ahead of time in my experience being also a sports photographer. For the editor to allow this pics, that individual must be pretty high up in the food chain.
 

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If I am not wrong, Joe Klamar is not a newbie, ...

A newbie with good basics will do better than a pro who lost track of them... sad to say!
 

A newbie with good basics will do better than a pro who lost track of them... sad to say!

not really... studio photography isn't as easy as it looks. each "style" has its own subtleties to them... even with good basics, also a challenge.
 

Given his background in sports simply wrong person for the job.
Kinda like asking Messi to play goalie.
Still football wat.
 

90% of the pics on CS portraits and poses look better..hehe
 

If you read deeper, he is only one of few photographers being invited to do the shoot, and the shoot is not shot in a proper studio, they photographer merely given a small space with some lighting set up, and couple of minutes to each athletes, the photogaphers have to make do whatever being provided.

here is the behind the scene article, Photographing Over 100 Olympic Athletes in Three Days | Photography Blog

143585-olyphotobooths-thumb-600x327-143584.jpg



however, another photographer Kevin Jairaj pull out better images, because he was prepare of the shoot,

Uh... what happened here? (from an AFP/Getty photographer, nonetheless) : photography

here is a photo of his set up,

Image Preview






So I guess, the moral of this story is;

plan ahead and be prepare for the shoot.

don't take a task it is too big for you able to swallow
 

This also remind me of at time when we shoot company event at hotel ballroom, than the person in charge tell you that they want a formal group photo, without assistant and studio light, you have to arrange a group photo50-60 pax within a few minutes, and depend on a hotshoe flash to light up the whole ballroom and the whole group......... don't need guess you will also know how the photos will turn out.


how would you tell your client if they make such comments, "the photographer look very professional but the group photo not very professional leh"
 

A newbie with good basics will do better than a pro who lost track of them... sad to say!

Thats what newbies feel because they don't know better.

And this situation is not about a 'pro losing track of basics' its about a totally different type of specialization.
 

What Ian said.

Not our place to find fault but just trying to understand what could be involved and what was lacking.

Was there an experienced producer to oversea the production? Or were these photojournalists dumped into unfamiliar jobscope AND made to be in charge of producing? These photojournalists are often staffers under payroll, where they accorded the proper equipment for the job or were they limited? Remember they are news agency staffers and not commercial/production-house photographers and may not own such equipments or know their usage well.

Were there an art director and stylist to decide the concept and image style? Or were these photojournalists dumped into taking charge of that area as well?

I read somewhere that it is the first time that this agency took charge of such projects. It is actually someone up there in the top that messed up bigger. The photographers took the blunt of the damage and made scapegoat.

The common public, hobbyists photographers, and even professional photographers of other speciality do not understand what is involved in such high profile promotional photography. Thus they think its all one person's fault. The one that did not mess up probably had the foresight and relevant experience to recognize the pitfalls and were better prepared.

And lastly to those people believing in the advertisings Canon and Nikon made to promote their gear, getting professional photographers to be ambassadors, do you think this makes a good advertisement? Hey, this is reality! So stop buying into those gear advertisements. It is people who make photos, good or bad, not gear.
 

90% of the pics on CS portraits and poses look better..hehe

Yeah, hahha. But of course, they don't have to fulfill a brief and deliver, and they were not dropped into a 'situation'.


Not the best, but much better than the US version, though its not too hard to beat the US pictures.
 

Yeah, hahha. But of course, they don't have to fulfill a brief and deliver, and they were not dropped into a 'situation'.



Not the best, but much better than the US version, though its not too hard to beat the US pictures.

Of course not hard ot beat the US picture...Got time to do it and place and better equipment...ask them to try it out in the US situation and see if the picture can turn out better loh.....then comment
 

Of course not hard ot beat the US picture...Got time to do it and place and better equipment...ask them to try it out in the US situation and see if the picture can turn out better loh.....then comment

Yes, and it seems that the pics were taken at some kind of summit/conference and not a proper shoot. Though I still think it's preparation and using the right human and material resources.

A great example of either you do it in a most proper way, or don't. No inbetweens. Too much at stake.
 

And the dilution of photography, indeed, if the news agency can failed to see the value of proper editorial/commercial portraitists and try to do things with their own photojournalists instead, it's not hard to imagine why so many hobbyists feel that pro photography is easy as ABC.
 

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if anyone has seen the photos from the link in the initial post, you can see the male gymnast posing on the on the white background with holes in the background. im sure a PRO can do better than this...

I believe that photography is like every other skill eg driving a truck. There is a common basic skill set whether driving taxi or driving lorry. An analogy would be maybe safe braking technique. Of course, the scope and type of work is markedly different.

Likewise I think a good pro regardless of specialty would know what the basic desirable attributes of a good photo (regardless of nature of photo) is. That's all I'm saying.

@allenleonhart :: you seen the photos in the link? i won't say it's easy, but I am quite sure it would inspire more patriotic feeling in the US viewer if the entirety of the flag is visible... Would that be very hard for the photographer...
 

Thats why im kinda sick and amuse by people who think going pro or start charging people is so easy as soon they got their whatever camera. Not looking down on people but just...come on.. :dunno:...

Especially when camera are getting cheaper or maybe parents are giving too good presents/surprises...this will just keep increasing.