Finding the Right Photographer - Part 1

During the early days of the 21^st century, I completed construction of a country headquarters for a major multinational bank. We wanted some photographs taken of the competed works once we handed over the project for our reference. I informed the person in command that my colleague, who is also a photographer, will come down and take some pictures. While giving consent he commented, “Anyone holding a digital camera considers him to be a photographer these days”. That was partially was true as not everyone had access to a “digicam” as it was known then and the prized possession came with the privilege of being considered to be a photographer.

This was then and today almost everyone has got a smart phone and is a photographer. Anywhere we go, we see people taking each other’s pictures, or selfies or things of interest around them. While this has given a whole new dimension to the definition of “citizen journalism”, the doubt remains if it has done a great deal of good to the profession of photography. The question revolves around the thought, how smart are the photographers with the smart phones.

Would you trust one of them with the responsibility for serious photography of once in a life time event or those which are close to our heart? It could be a graduation ceremony, a wedding, final sports event you are participating and most importantly to capture some memories of child’s early days. This is based on the premises that art and photography is a big deal for us and we want our pictures to be perfectly framed with the right amount of color, brightness and exposure. And we love to browse pictures when we are sentimental and also love to flaunt a few gorgeous moments aptly framed on the living room wall.

It is therefore important to select a photographer with care, and we can only do that if we set our criteria correctly. After going through the list it might appear that it’s quite difficult to find a good photographer and guess what?  – It is. Or else, all of us with a mobile phone would have been ace photographers.

 To be continued …