Comments on: Cheap Photographers

By: Ankur Dinge

Ankur Dinge — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 05:42:25 +0000

Very true.. experienced that many times.. Its very sad that people do not appreciate the work of a photographer. Hope the population of admirers increase soon and the awareness continues to spread in the country and the world…

By: Aline de Souza

Aline de Souza — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 12:19:51 +0000

That’s exactly how I feel when doing art/handcraft. People look, find it lovely, but when told about the price, they refuse to pay, saying “this is something anyone can do, even I can”. So do it! I defy most of them. And they say: “oh, I got no patience, or time, or blablabla…” No one says a word about knowledge. This is something you have to know how to do, first of all. Afterwards you tell me about how easy it is to it when it is already done.

By: Jesu

Jesu — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 07:26:48 +0000

In the years that I spent as a Video/Film editor, what really struck me was that, studio owners would spend lakhs of rupees to buy the editing machine, software, carpeting for the editing suite, A/C, fancy furniture etc etc. Go to extremes to ensure the machine is taken very good care off and then pay the editor a meagre salary and treat him really badly.. And after years of getting bad work out, the only lesson that they have learnt is not to spend so much on the machines and decor. So you now have poorly paid editors and badly maintained machines in poorly kept rooms. No A/C even in some cases.

Where editors get more importance than the machines, you invariably get good work out..

@Deepa Mohan – we have a one month old baby and I know exactly how you feel

Cheers!

By: ashok pai

ashok pai — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:19:58 +0000

Apologies for twisting the debate here, but it really boils down to this:

Service in India is not appreciated because of the feudal mentality.

- no dignity of labour, we still have maids for our daily chore.
- There’s lots of people who’ll do it for you for cheap, we’re a populous country.
- If not you, there’s always another shop.
- Skill/talent amounts to nothing, especially since its intangible.
- We don’t believe in paying for what’s due, we tend to pirate at the drop of a hat. no, I do not support Disney/ RIAA/ MPAA, etc the bad west and its version of copyrights twisted to meet their end, I’m talking about the hard working individuals, like companies that sweat and make video game, and their work is not compensated for, Indy musicians who produce real good music, but aren’t compensated for.

it finally boils down to we as a nation adapting the worst of the west as we are growing, add to it the feudal culture, and we have the resulting mess.

By: Deepa Mohan

Deepa Mohan — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 19:59:01 +0000

Totally agree. I am also often seeing people who attend wildlife or photography workshops, but do not want to observe even the basic rules, have so much of ego that they have no respect for the person whose workshop they have come to attend.

I too have a favourite story….a famous fashion designer was approached by a fashionable lady, who asked him to make a hat for her. He took a length of broad ribbon, and folded it this way and that, and pinned it…and said, “Voila! There’s your hat!” and then asked the lady to pay. “What!” said the lady, “It’s only a length of pink ribbon, why should I pay for that?” The fashion designer calmly reached across, shook the ribbon free, and gave it back to the lady, and said, “Well, then…here’s your ribbon!”

But..this is happening also with art, Amogh. People seem to think that producing incomprehensible art is the same as producing abstract art…I have seen such daubs pretending to be art! So, too, for music, where often, being famous is substituted for having talent!

Leave alone artistic endeavours. I was told recently, “how difficult could it be to take care of a baby? you just have to feed her, bathe her and put her to sleep!” Yeah, right, I said to myself…it’s obvious, O Speaker, that you’ve never cared for one!

The problem becomes acute when the professional wants to charge money…instantly our bargaining instincts kick in, and we actually sometimes run down the skill in an effort to make it more affordable!

This, however, has always been the case, and will continue to happen. One has to write these down as the cost of experience.

By: Pradeep

Pradeep — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 18:31:35 +0000

Kewl ! video

By: Rajasekar

Rajasekar — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 18:01:15 +0000

It is sad that people don’t appreciate Photography as an Art, particularly in India. It is perceived that the high end Camera is the sole reason for a better image, even by photographers sometimes. Blame it on digital technology or whatever, ever since consumer digital SLRs mushroomed in market, anyone who could buy that becomes a photographer which doesn’t happen in any other Art forms.

Sometimes I wish photography technology shouldn’t have evolved and stayed with Film days.

By: Sharath

Sharath — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 16:53:23 +0000

It might also have to do with the awareness level of some of the people. Some people who come from a physics background, may not be able to appreciate the art, but certainly recognize the science behind photographs. But by and large as your post points out, people come to conclusions based on their limited exposure to arts and science …

By: Pramod Viswanath

Pramod Viswanath — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 16:21:03 +0000

Does people also know that only high quality image is worth ‘processing’? And, no matter how hard you try with the photoshop – you cannot fix a junk image/RAW file, right?! Or will they just say – Oh this is a manipulated image – how can you get a background like that! I would put it this way Kalyan – first people should understand the science part let alone seeing it as an art. I am with you on this post and we are light years behind compared to other countries that I hate to name!!

By: Diabolic Preacher

Diabolic Preacher — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 10:25:33 +0000

There are also those people who’d think Photoshop is the magic wand for all photographs. They’d never appreciate the patience stretching to hours for a “right at the moment” photograph.

@taj example of Picasso is really interesting.