24 MAY 2013 by ideonexus

 No Such Thing as Professional Photographers

...there’s no such thing as Flickr Pro, because today, with cameras as pervasive as they are, there is no such thing really as professional photographers, when there’s everything is professional photographers. Certainly there is varying levels of skills, but we didn’t want to have a Flickr Pro anymore, we wanted everyone to have professional quality photos, space, and sharing.
 1  1  notes

The Yahoo CEO took a lot of heat for this comment, but there is a great deal of truth to it. With digital photography, photographs are so pervasive that professionals are now competing with a horde of amateurs.

These are various notes from session hosts and members of the audience during this session:

  • www.blueearth.org – neat wave effect on the site.
  • Escaping the Ivory Tower – photography publicizes work.
  • We create visual narratives about ourselves on facebook.
  • It’s important for people at organizations to take their own photos for people to use. The photo is the first thing to catch your eye.
  • Strobist.blogspot.com – light tutorials, photoshop and gimp for post production,
  • Graphitti archeology project – photo documents the evolution of walls over time. Scientists photograph environments, documenting change.
  • Neil _____: building a community of science photographers
  • Online photography community is enormous, amateurs who want to take photos but don’t know what to shoot.
  • Naturescapes.net
  • Birdphotographer.net
  • Bugguy.net
  • Bloggers think of photographers as collaborators.
  • Photos illustrate, convey ideas, create visual representations of concepts
  • Kids might not have professional cameras, but it’s good to get them taking photos with their phones as a means of getting them into photography.
  • Gigapan Project: a camera robot takes thousands of photos, which get stitched together and allow you to zoom in for incredible detail
  • What’s the best image? Steve from Scientific American: If you can get a shot that gets rid of 400 lines of copy.
  • Science in the Triangle writer: break out of the average, learn how to use the camera and turn off its automatic feature
  • Zenfolio – more professional photos
  • Should writers do the photography, or should they collaborate with photographers. Photographers can miss things the writer thinks are important.
  • “The best camera is the one you have with you.” – the photographer’s maxim
  • Deviantart
  • Istockphoto - $1 to $10 photos
  • Discrimination Learning: everything looks the same at first, pay attention to the images that interest you to become more distinguished
  • Fillflash – use it, good for evening out shadows, especially at noon or in bright light
  • Caption images in your head as you take them.
  • Stories Behind the Greatest Photos in Sports – HBO documentary
  • 365 Project – take and post one photo a day for a year
  • Visualscience at discover website
  • Theartofscience.posterous.com – photos through microscopes