Photo Gear Pimps

This is sort of a follow-up to my previous update, Secrets of the Pros Revisited. This time out, I want to talk a bit more about pro shooters, make that a few of the uber-shooters of photography and their possible love affairs with manufacturers and each other.

Catalyst for this update comes from photographer, blogger, and PGS reader, Tom. Check out Tom's blog. Some good stuff there!

Back to today's update: Tom left a comment to my previous post and it got me to thinking. Here's a snip from Tom's comment to kick this off:

...what I'm seeing so clearly now is that some of the select "pro's" have learned to partner and form this huge circle ... basically a big love fest partnership run by (the) mother ship.

Nothing surprising about that observation, Tom. Love fests (hate fests too) are often encouraged, sponsored, and underwritten by one mother ship or another out there. (Or should that read "up there?")

Tom continues:

This is a very specifically built business plan to write about the amazing trips and miracle "toys" they find helps them in their photography when it's basically a link with their ID code for commissions.

That's neither surprising nor fundamentally wrong, Tom. If some of the uber-shooters truly are pimping "miracle toys" and other things that help us out as photographers, sounds pretty Kosher to me. Perhaps we should be grateful?

But then Tom gets to the nitty-gritty of his concerns:

A lot of the "Pros" are leveraging the digital bandwagon right now and milking it. They have to, there is not much work out there for them. But I feel sorry for the new people entering the hobby side, getting milked bad...

Well, Hmm... You gotta interesting point there, Tom. When the things these guys and gals endorse are products they regularly use and truly believe in, I have no problem with that. I also don't have a problem with them getting paid to endorse those products. But when, as you seem to suspect and I do too, they're claiming this or that is a big part of their photographic bag of tricks and the product(s) in question scores somewhat low on the effective-and-useful scale, that's a whole different subject. Especially if and when these products' uses don't seem too evident in pictures featured in their online portfolios, i.e., it doesn't look as if the products were used to capture many, if any, of the pics. When that happens, my bullshit radar also starts bleeping like its having a spaz attack!

Many uber-shooters have blogs these days. That's great! Many other shooters, that is those who are serious about photography, enjoy and appreciate getting tips from these people. I know I do. After all, learn enough about how they do what they do and our pics might look very much like their pics, leastwise in terms of quality and creativity. Then, who knows? A few of us might end up in the fast lane to uber-shooter status!

Lately, it seems somes of these folks have decided to use their blogs to pimp all kinds of products: Sometimes in subtle ways, sometimes in obvious ways. Nothing intrinsically wrong with that. If you're an uber-shooter and you use whatever-from-whomever to get those killer shots, it only makes sense you might want to crow a bit about the products you use. And it only makes sense that the people who hold you and your photographic prowess in high esteem might want to purchase and use that very same gear. (Obviously, a marketing strategy that's been around a very long time.)

But I'm a bit of a cynic. Like Tom, I've become more than a little suspicious when it comes to some people's motivations for doing the things they do and saying the things they say. That includes a number of photographers whose work I greatly admire and whose careers I envy see as inspirational and motivating.

Did Babe Ruth truly enjoy and regularly munch on his namesake candy bar? I don't have a freakin' clue. Does so-and-so really use that gizmo on his or her speedlites? Again, I don't have a clue. Does so-and-so ordinarily uses speedlites in their professional work? Hell! I don't know that either, not for sure. Does uber-shooter "X" or uber-shooter "Y" really and truly believe we should all be dropping some very serious change on a new dSLR from Company "A" or from Company "B" that also captures HD video? Even if we recently emptied our wallets on last year's latest-and-greatest? Hmm... Again, dunno. It's not that I don't trust anyone specifically. It's just that my bullshit radar keeps going off more and more lately and I don't know who to trust. Maybe it's out of calibration? My bullshit radar, that is.

I'm not going to name names. And I don't hold it against anyone who scores an occasional payday by endorsing stuff they use and believe in. I have Amazon links on this site. Most of the specific books I recommend are in my personal library. If not, they're in the personal library of someone I know and whose judgments I trust. I wouldn't suggest them if I didn't believe they had value.

Recently, I accepted some gear from a Pacific-rim manufacturer in exchange for reviews and some pics of the gear in action. But here's the deal: Early on, when that gear was first offered to me, it was specifically stated that my honest opinions were sought. Further, even if I ended up having some unkindly things to say about this gear, that was okay. It was still mine to keep.

So here's the deal: Be careful what you purchase! Don't take anyone's word for it without doing some additional research. I don't care whose word it is! Just because someone whose work you admire is pimping a specific product it doesn't mean that product is all it claims to be, will positively help you with your photography, will open new opportunities for you, or that the endorsers regularly use the products themselves. There's a lot of crap out there that won't do anything positive for your photography in spite of what some manufacturers or their pimps might claim or infer. Like those mythical Secrets of the Pros, some of photography's so-called wonder-gadgets are equally mythical in terms of their effectiveness, usefulness, and marketing claims.

BTW, I'm not trying to sound cool or hip by using the words "pimp" and/or "pimping" when refering to some of the products that some people are endorsing. I think it's an appropriate analogy. When you hand over your cash for some of these goods, you're getting fucked.

The pretty girl at the top is Selena from last year. The image is definitely outside of the my normal style: One light, modified with a 4' Photoflex Octodome, filling the ambient coming in through windows. But not so much that it overpowered those streaks of light coming in and hitting the model and the wall.