Robert Coe
On Fri, 06 Dec 2013 23:30:02 -0500, PeterN <peter.newnospam@verizon.net> wrote: : On 12/6/2013 10:48 PM, Robert Coe wrote: : : <snip> : : > : >I'm an event photographer, mostly. And event photography consists almost : >entirely of snapshots. (As does its cousin, photojournalism.) I like to try my : >hand at artistic work when I have time. But if I'm going to take pictures on : >Company time, I have to produce what my clients want. : : Don't denigrate your skills. Event photography is a professional skill : that not everybody has. IMHO Ansel Adams would have made a lousy event : photographer. If I had to evaluate myself, I would make a lousy event : photographer. Similarly, I have little skill in portrait photography. As : to landscapes, I am what can be called a schlepper. I do it, like it, : and wish I could do it a lot better.

I didn't say that event photography is easy; it's actually pretty hard. (Its epitome, wedding photography, is very hard.) But it is different from the various forms of artistic photography, in that it emphasizes the type of pictures that many refer to as shapshots. Snapshots can be good or bad, depending on composition, lighting, etc.; and those things can be controlled to some degree some of the time. But shapshots rarely rise to the level of artistry, and the event photographer or photojournalist has to recognize and accept that fact.