Shooting like a Professional? By: Peter Gold

Photographic equipment has come a long way in the last ten years. At the beginning, there was the $40,000 Kodak dSLR with something like 4 megapixel, or at the other end of the scale, the Sony Mavica, which stored about three dozen images on a 720Kb floppy disk. Technology keeps on moving. Today, a 21 megapixel Canon 5D Mark 2 is less than $2400. And it also captures HD video with stereo sound. Point-and-shoot cameras are constantly improving with better resolution and less noise in the images. For around $300 you can pick up a decent camera.
 

Because the equipment is improving and the prices are dropping, more and more people are picking up cameras for the very first time in their lives, and enjoying it quite a bit. There is no cost to take photographs anymore, once you buy the equipment. People are experimenting more because of the instant feedback on the LCD screen. People are coming back from vacation now with thousands of images to sort through and they just print the good ones. In the days of film, the cost would have been prohibitive to shoot like that.
 

What irritates me a great deal are the camera manufacturers that claim, with their particular camera, with all the onboard bells and whistles, you too “can shoot like a professional”! Excuse me, but that makes as much sense as buying a pair of pliers from Home Depot and saying you now have the knowledge to pull teeth like a dentist.
I’ve noticed many people who believe that if they buy the right equipment, they too could instantly become a professional photographer.
 

They have taken a few photos for the family, and they liked them. From there, it goes to their head, and they are off and running. Unfortunately, when they take on jobs that they are not qualified for, their lack of experience and knowledge on lighting, composition, optics, etc. shows through. And this hurts the professional photographers because it reflects on the industry overall.
 

While it’s fun to play with photography, when you need a professional photographer, there are two main associations to contact. The Professional Photographers of Canada (PPOC) and the Canadian Association of Photographers and Illustrators in Communications (CAPIC).
 

Check out the professionals in your area, see their websites and credentials in the association. Compare their styles and specialties. In the PPOC, members can earn a Craftsman and then a Masters degree as their proficiency improves. While cameras now can produce a sharp image effortlessly, what it can’t do is create exceptional content. The camera engineers in Japan have no idea where the photographer is going to aim the equipment.
 

So when you need images with impact, seek out the professional photographer who dedicates his or her life perfecting the skills necessary to create the images you need in a timely manner, consistently.