GIVE PHOTOGRAPHERS CREDIT AND RESPECT OUR VISION July 1, 2016

I’m sure I’m not the only photographer who has seen his or her work on Facebook, Instagram, or social media in general and not have their photograph credited to them. Even when it comes to just touching up photos we still like the credit. Credit is a way of spreading our name and business to future clients so they can see what our work is like and help us to get hired. In this day and age social media is so Important. It’s rapidly connecting all parts of the world together and its power can’t be underestimated. That’s why it’s important to give any credit and support to us as much as possible. Social media’s presence has become an important factor for entrepreneurs’ success or sadly their failure. According to socialmediaimpact.com, “The evidence is in favor of having social media profiles across multiple platforms as a business. Social media platforms are fundamentally essential for the success of a business given that around 46% of web visitors look toward social media when making purchases.” Another pet peeve is we work on an image and have edited it to what we envisioned it to be. We hand it off to clients, friends, or family. When we see it posted on social media and see filters , cropped images, and some crappy fonts on top of the image, etc. it can be very frustrating. It makes us think that there was no point in editing photos or taking the time to come up with an idea if our creative vision is disregarded. I guess it’s not their fault. No one understands the time and the effort that goes into thinking of an idea and making it come to life. They don’t understand lighting and composition. They don’t know what its like to edit a picture and to make subtle transformations . Yes, it’s child play to take a picture, but it takes vision and an idea to bring the art out of a photo and that’s what great photographers do every day. Then there’s the other topic of stealing someone’s work, but now I’m just rambling and I’ll save that topic for another day. Maybe it’s just me making a big deal out of it. This has been on my mind for sometime now and just wanted to get it off my chest. In a way I feel photography is one of the most disrespected arts because any dummy can pick up a camera and call themselves a photographer. Our name, vision, and work is part of us and as we grow as an artist we want our art to grow as well. So the next time you like a image think about what the process behind it was and I guarantee you’ll appreciate it more. A great photographer once said “You don’t take a photograph, you make it.” Ansel Adams Good Night and Good Luck