This is an issue that has been on my mind for a long time and I am sure will be one with which many people will strongly disagree.

After watching and joining many of the varied and interesting photography related groups on Facebook and other social media it struck me that some of the questions that people ask are to me…nonsense. Don’t get me wrong, social media groups can be great forums for getting help for some tricky issues that we might not have come across. The opposite of that are questions that just don’t make sense to ask, given what the person asking the question must have done before asking the question, or at least you hope they had!

The questions are in no particular order:

1. What lense / lenses should I buy?

This seems such a basic question that i am mystified that someone even asks! I mean…really, the assumption is that you have already bought a DSLR (hence the lense question). If you bought just the body and didn’t buy any lenses then what were you thinking? It’s really only experienced photographers who buy just the body, usually because they already have lenses to fit it. All manufacturers have camera kits that come with a lense or lenses, so why if you were new to DSLR’s would you NOT buy a kit? it just doesn’t make sense in any way to choose a manufacturer, Canon, Nikon etc and then ask what lenses to buy! you have already chosen the mount you must use so why haven’t you done your own research based on what you will be photographing, read reviews and summary articles and thought about what lenses you might need. Even if you bought the body you would still have to have thought of what you will be taking pictures of and realized that you need at least one lense to take pictures!

2. I have never shot (insert event type) before and I have been asked to shoot it by a client… What lenses should I use, what types of shot are required, how many images do they get? how much should I charge?

Again this seems like a question that you really should not need to ask and if you feel you have to asking social media people who don’t have any idea who you are or what the circumstances are is almost as silly! I mean if you have never shot an event professionally, how on earth did you convince someone to hire you to do that or why on earth did you agree to shoot a commercial job having never done it before. You should have at least some practice doing similar events as a second shooter or by shooting a fake event and practicing your skills. If you have agreed to the event, how did you convince the client to hire you without any images of a similar type to show them in your portfolio? Also if the client is really a friend then why would you agree to shoot an event you have never done, unless you had told them you had done it even though you are telling the internet that you have never shot the event type before. All you can do is hope the friend doesn’t see your posts on the net asking for help!

If you have to ask how much to charge for an event what research have you done on your own? you can’t expect other people to tell you what they charge because you will be tempted to charge less than they do to get jobs and people don’t want to give competitors a chance to undercut them!

3. What type of shots are the best to take? and how many images do they get for the price (which you have not disclosed)?

These questions are very simple to deal with and much of what the first two points cover are applicable to these questions. If you have agreed to shoot an event without any idea of what shots you will need then your should not have taken the job in the first place. Using a client or friends event for which you are being paid, to practice your skills is not just silly, but is just plain wrong! its not fair to professional photographers who would do a professional job and who would not put someone’s important event at risk due to their lack of skills. If you are in this position stop..go do research and find out what others charge and why. The same goes for what images to provide, how, in what format etc. Find out somethings on your own first an don;t just assume that people will give away all their information that they have spent a great deal of time and experience gaining! its just plain rude to ask!

I think you can see what I mean with just these two questions! The fact that cameras are so cheap, everyone thinks that they can be a photographer just by buying one. It is then that they seem to realize that they need to have certain skills that they do not have and don’t want to take the time to learn. They seem to think that because things are free on the net that people will be happy to give away their hard won information to someone they don’t know just because they are asked for it. Whatever job you do, you would feel the same if someone with no experience at all in the field came to you and asked you to give them all your skills just because they think they can do the same job by buying the same equipment you use.

If you think about it these concepts do make sense and if we tried to find out a lot by ourselves we would find that more people would help those that have at least tried to help themselves.

Derek.