Rant

There is nothing that annoys me more in terms of photography than people taking the photographer for granted.

I was at a dinner party last night and it was a wonderful party and a wonderful reason for me to bring my camera out. I haven't been taking too many random photos recently, and I felt like doing a bit of photography. In any case, we were sitting around the dinner table and my camera was beside me, and my friend decided to say to the rest of the guests: "Please excuse Lara. She loves taking photos of everything." Which was absolutely fine, and very true and one of the guests responded by saying that she didn't mind as long as the photos were good. To which my friend replied, "They will be. She has a very nice camera."

It is a common misconception that a number of people have that the camera is everything. While my camera is good, it's not what makes the photographs that I take good. I like to think that I have an eye for a good photo and wait for good moments to take photos. I also have a steady hand and know which apertures and shutter speeds to use for which situations. This means that it is more than just the camera that is good. It's the photographer as well and people have a tendency to forget this fact.

Another thing that annoyed me was that one of the friends of this friend that was having the dinner party then asked to play around with my camera. I agreed rather reluctantly, but without showing any reluctance, and the girl then complained that she had to stand back because my lens didn't have a zoom and what a stupid lens it was because she couldn't zoom out. Nevermind that it is one of my favourite lenses and the best for the light that was provided in the room, nevermind that I offered to let her use the kit lens that was in my bag. No, this girl didn't want to change anything, but wanted to complain because the lens wasn't to her satisfaction.

I should now mention that while there are people who annoy me when it comes to my photography, there are also those who astound me (in a good way). There are people like my friend Jestine, who has been encouraging me to start standing up for myself when it comes to photography and charging when I should and refusing to take jobs that don't come with pay unless they are jobs that I actually want to take. There are also people like Mike and Vicky, who try to insist on paying me for the wedding shots that I did even though I have already informed them that I will not be charging them, since they were my first wedding shoot and since the camera died halfway through their wedding. No matter, they still pester me occasionally to give them my banking details, which I will refuse to do because I think that there are times when charging is appropriate and there are times when it is not, and my first wedding shoot is not something that I want to charge for.

In any case, these were just a couple of things that I wanted to get off my chest and I am rather glad that I have now. Rant over.