November 29th, 2011 @ 6:03 pm

my homegirl sheena reblogged a post earlier today on tumblr that reminded me to post about something that gets on my nerves…  not to be directed at her of course, i love the sheebs, but i’ve read bullshit comments/ppls two cents about it so many times before she even hit the reblog button, but this is seriously annoying to read. this is some seriously negative bullshit.

i’m not gonna sit here pretending to be, or saying that i’m a professional photographer… i know that isn’t the case at all, so to make it clear, i’m not trying to defend myself in that respect. my point is, who are all of these whiny, elite people all over the interwebz that have decided that the bulk of instagram users even consider themselves “(professional/amateur/[insert actual, other “valid” type]) photographers”? i’d like one of them to provide 5-10 instagram user bios that even clearly state that they think they are…

one of my best friends is a photographer AND an instagram user (and she even likes it), that regularly edits all of her photographs herself. i can see why she, and other photographers, would find using instagram one-click filters “cheating”… but i mean, is there skill-beef and complaint between the people that actually develop film and people that take digital photos? what about the people with polaroid and disposable cameras? are they also just as talentless or looked down upon? i’m sure there are, and i’m sure that beef exists, but isn’t it just as stupid?

my point is… it takes an imagination, a brain, a keen eye, good positioning, great timing, steady hands, etc. for great photos in general. i think that there wouldn’t be some really great ones captured if it weren’t for instagram. THAT i will defend, because some pictures i’ve taken/applied a filter to wouldn’t look the way that they are without it.  i actually have the ability to edit my own photos via photoshop, as well as using my app and i’m saying this…  also: each filter makes images look different and greater in different ways.

put two people side by side and see how differently they see/edit the photos.  the creativity and talent is endless.

i realize that there are some REALLY UGLY/talentless pictures floating around instagram too (especially the morons that confuse it for tumblr), and i’m sure i’m sometimes guilty of non-skilled photographs…  what i’m sure the grandma above DID TELL you is that “if you have nothing nice to say, don’t say anything at all” (which makes me sound like a bit of a hypocrite since i bitch and complain so often on this website).

when man invented the camera and it became available to anyones hands, it made everyone a photographer. whether they’re good or bad is a different story.  i bitch and complain about point and click stuff on computers vs. being able to do it from the ground up, but this is different.  there are different levels of people who take pictures.  there are professionals and not professionals.

in my personal life, as a graphic designer, someone i know (and love) uses a cricut machine.  while i bitch about people who can’t actually illustrate or use graphic design programs “creating” things on cricut machines, they still need to come up with the ideas and elements, right?

:: shrug ::

i can relate, but i think it’s a pick and choose your battles kind of a thing.

if you search flickr and look through the instagram blog, you’ll see tons of amazing photographs taken by these “photographers”.