What I'm getting sick of seeing is the assertion that all bad photographers are MALE. To be quite honest about it, my piss-ivity level goes up every time I see it.
All we keep hearing (reading) is how terrible guy photographers are for this business. Well, here's one major benefit of seeing male photographers over female provider/photographers. We male photographers are not competing and will NEVER compete with you for male clients. Ever. We have no use for them. A provider-ographer may think, "Damn, she's hotter than me, and works in the same circles I do. Will she possibly cost me some high end clients?"
I mean, we've NEVER seen a catfight go bad on this board. We've never seen providers that were once besties turn into mortal enemies. We've never seen providers refuse to give references for each other, over something that happened in the past. Oh, nooooo. None of this stuff has EVER happened...except, IT HAS, and does.
Look, I don't rip on female photographers, or any photographers, for that matter. I've always felt that photography was like motorcycle riding. There's this "code" within that you don't steal another rider's helmet, take parts off each's ride, or kick over his/her bike or whatever (I don't know all of them...they can tell you about 'the code' much better than I can). I guess I'm being way too naive to think such a thing exists with photographers. All I keep reading (on this board) is how male photographers suck, are a bunch of perverts, and that ONLY female photographers know what they're doing.
Maybe I'm overreacting with this. Forgive me if I am, but I've had enough of the assertion that only females can shoot females, that guys don't know what they're doing, and are just looking for a cheap thrill. Peh!! A dozen 'free' appointments won't begin to equate for the cost of my equipment, time, and the effort I put into this. Legit photographers want to show work that they can be proud of, that the customer appreciates, without feeling like they've been scammed.
I'm not 'angry' as I type this, just annoyed, as it seems that there's an audience out there that's trying to sway the market with underhanded tactics. If you're good, your work will stand on its own, and such tactics wouldn't be necessary.
