I understand the requirement of experience when hiring a photographer, you are essentially sharing either a very personal one time event with them or paying them a lot of money to photograph products for your company. Therefore an experienced photographer is a necessity, not an option, for most people. Customers need to know that you can deliver the images that will forever represent themselves or their product.
There are many ways that photographers try to convey this sense of experience, one way is the biography section of their website. Inevitably on a photographers website the biography lists the first time they used a camera. Nearly every single one of us took the family camera out of the bag and pointed it at the nearest mirror pressing the button as soon as we were able, for me it was about four years old. Does that mean I have 26 years of experience? I think not.
What does all that experience really mean? Personally I didn’t have too much interest in the camera at all growing up. I did buy my first SLR when I was attending Cottage Grove High School, I was on the yearbook committee and did the printing for the yearbook. (All traditional printing in the darkroom) Thinking back I can only remember running two rolls of film through the old Minolta before putting it back in it’s case. It is my guess that most photographers who state the beginning of their career at four years old share a similar experience.
Tip:
Be careful when reading the copy of a photographers website, there is usually little purpose for it except to stretch the truth about their experience and their accomplishments. One professional photographer I interned for told me, “Facts about past clients and accomplishments are hard if not impossible to confirm, so use that to your advantage when marketing yourself.”
Perhaps naively I choose not to do this. I count the day I changed my Major in College from Mechanical Engineering to Fine Arts as the day I became a photographer. The entire semester prior to that change I struggled with the idea of becoming a starving artist. In my second photo class at the time, and spending 40+ hours a week in the Universities Art Book Room, it was clear to me that becoming a photographer was something I felt compelled to pursue. It is now such an ingrained part of my identity that it is hard to imagine a time when I didn’t see the world through the viewfinder of a camera. In reality that was only 8 years ago.
My first inclination was to collaborate with a designer but after checking the rules only entrants solely responsible for the design and content are eligible. This seems a little backwards to the trends in art and in commerce lately of using the power of collaboration to create projects. I know I am a great photographer and I could crank out a good design for a book but I also know I am not a great designer. My address book is full of great designers and that is what they do, it is their life– just like photography for me.
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