Opening post

So after a few months of joking about Trained Monkees, I am finally sitting down for the first post. This blog stems from both the frustration and amusment of watching how idiot proof photography has become. The gap has closed between the "professional" camera and the "consumer" level camera. Combined with the rise of the internet and online proofing the result is that everyone is now a professional.

Between myself and my photographer colleagues I see this phenomenom in many venues. The businesses who used to hire professionals for annual reports and corporate work are now satisfied with images from a secretary's cell phone. The youth sports photographers who can't understand why a 5.6 lens just won't cut it in the local hockey rink. The photographers all who give their work away for a photo credit.

This is not saying that everyone can get lucky sometime. But being a professional is not just having a camera and a website. Copyright, liscensing, contracts, knowing your equipment and how to trouble shoot it. Knowing how to use the equipment, not just setting the camera on Program (someone please explain this to me, I do not understand this mode). These are all things that factor into being a professional.

This is not to say that we all don't use some of the features available to us. I use shutter and aperture priority when the situation warrents, but I know what the settings mean. I use my auto focus, but is the lighting doesn't allow for a sharp edge the auto focus goes off.

At the risk of sounding like an old foggey.... with every new body the more technology is at one's fingertips. This is not to say we all need to go back to the pinhole. But at least understand what the science is.