To be or not to be; to post or not to post, pro or otherwise.
The difficulty that this site will always pose a pro is similar to that in any other non-selective membership site: the lack of certainty about the other people with whom one might be in correspondence within said site.
That said, it's not been my experience that pros were ever all that given to discussing their techniques and or equipment with other photographers. Even less likely was it that people working within the same city would share information that could offer the competition the slight advantage whatsoever; I'd be surprised if things have changed very much, and I'd imagine that with the tougher market out there today, important things are kept ever more closely to the individual chest. As for discussing prices/charges: you must be joking! Self-preservation is de rigueur, above absolutely everything else
As odd is the expectation that pros might think of themselves as gratuitous schools for amateurs, especially in a world where the professional and amateur distinctions are becoming more blurred the further down the market one goes... with less work around, the more control one can exercise over one's own outlets, abilities and possibilities the better; seems common sense to me.
Now, remove all that stuff about markets from the equation, and where do we find ourselves, from a pro's point of view?
Chat about pixel-count, badges etc. is, I suggest, an amateur fixation, based on the belief that having the latest and greatest will make one a better photographer and, thus, bring one a little closer to the goal of making some money from the thing, at least enough to get back part of what was otherwise wasted on the harware. I say wasted and I mean it: the average amateurs can get as much photographic joy out of a reasonable camera as from the top-of-the -range; where in hell are they selling all these huge enlargements they deem a theoretical necessity for their camera to be able to produce? They don't even need the pixel-count: they can stitch, yet something more with which to play and entertain themselves.
I remember clearly that during my own time there were people who swore by Nikon, Rolleiflex and Hasselblad, and those others who risked all with Pentax and Mamiya and/or the larger formats such as 4"x5" upwards. It didn't actually seem to create fanboys, as such, perhaps largely because there were no forums like this one, and no Internet existed to foster the cults. People had and used what they'd bought in to, and as long as the tools gave the results required, why would anyone change until they got into a higher level of market, when it became financially possible and advantageous (if only for basic prestige purposes) to have a few Hasselblad bodies and lenses lying around the studio even though the job was being shot on 135 format? People who hire you want to feel secure in the belief that they haven't picked a fly-by-night who might just vanish with part of the budget.
So there you are: why would any current top professional photographer feel a need to spend free time writing on LuLa - or anywhere, for that matter? In my own day, when I was busy I had no time to spend on anything else, and that often included eating and even sleeping. When I had periods with little or even no work I felt so helpless, humble and uncertain that just going out to see existing clients became a bit of a challenge. Without the adrenalin pumping, there are many things one can't hack. And dealing with some corporate asshole is one amongst those things, and there certainly were a few of them around, much to my initial surprise in those early days. There were also some gems who made working with them a pleasure. Writing to strangers in order to lift the business blues would certainly not have risen high on my list of remedial mechanics!
Time to spend on websites aside, there is also the website situation that occurs where the seasoned pro finds himself at loggerheads with an amateur who is simply unwilling or, as bad, unable to realise the limitations of his own knowledge or understanding. Who wants to argue? Who cares enough?
So yeah, some can and will become disenchanted with the entire experience. In my view, the principal attraction of a pro-section is in seeing higher-grade images from commissions etc. and I have little wish to look at crap and even less to discuss it - I can produce enough of my own, thanks very much. That's one reason why I so enjoy Cooter's posts: he knows his onions and isn't afraid to show images that live up to what one would hope he can produce. Personally speaking again, his genres are not so far away from where my own lay in the day; I enjoy seeing where he takes it now, well beyond my own time. As I never had much interest in architecture or still life, I can't say I currently find such shots suddenly very interesting. Yes, of course I can appreciate good work for what it is, but it doesn't excite me, which is something quite else. And if you lose excitement, whither motivation?
Rob C
