What are the worst words in photography?

[wilonstott]

"I like that DSLR, its images look pretty film-like."

Hehe.
Yea I know right. Seems like I see sentiment like this all the time. It's like film is this ideal that DSLR's are striving for--seems to equate it with "authenticity" of the image or something like that.

I feel like companies like Fuji and Kodak could cash in on this belief, but then again, why would they market film to the consumer when they can sell them DSLRs that have a "film look" for a boatload more money?

The problem with film cameras, from a corporate standpoint, is that they are somewhat immune to programed/engineered obsolescence. Good for us, bad for film.

 

[hteasley]

Unrelated to my photography, but very related to my career in computer graphics: "I took this family photo. It's kind of dark and blurry. Can you photoshop it for me? You know, rescue it, make it better?"

 

[nonot]

"Cool antique, does it work?"

 

[sazerac]

At the airport security with the officer looking at my 1950s rangefinder: "Turn the Camera ON and let me look at the display!"

Me: "It doesn't even have a battery ..." 🙂

Speaking of security guards, has anyone had problems with their 'vit? I have flown several times w/o any problems, but a friend of mine recently couldn't beleive that this was less harmful than 3.5 oz. of shampoo...

 

[shadowfox]

"How do you print without a printer?" ... referring to the ones that sit on your desk.

"Your lens cap is on!" ... I hate it when someone yell this to me, especially when they are right.

 

[Darshan]

"Dreamy"

"Is that the Leica glow?"

"3D effect"

 

[Paul Luscher]

Worst words:

" My (son, daughter, cousin,etc) is a photographer, too." Usually we're talking about happy snaps with a point-and-shoot, or some excruciatingly arty-pretentious student stuff.

"Oh, you must have shot that with a Canon." No matter what camera I actually used. The power of advertising...

And, yes, there's "No photography allowed," and "But you didn't use a flash." Tired of telling people that with 400 or faster film, you don't NEED a flash, even indoors, and it would ruin the mood I'm trying to catch, anyway..

 

[Matus]

At an airport (when traveling to New Zealand with 4x5 Tachihara, tripod and lot of film in my carry on luggage) the security guard asked - "what is that?" As he was obviously in a good mood I asked him for a guess - he said ".. video camera .." and his colleague added "... underwater housing .. " 😛

On other occasion when I was approached by a stranger while shooting with my Rolleiflex T and let him have a look at the screen - "... what a great LCD !! " ... I could not but agree 😉

But I really enjoyed a recent experience from Spain while shooting with Mamiya 6 at some historical place in Sevilla and was approached by a young man who (obviously patiently waiting until I finish my shot) asked me to make him a photo with his digital P&S. So I checked quickly the settings, added a flash (he was in a shade contrary to the background), composed, shot and handled the camera back and we exchanged greetings. Few minutes later ha came to me with words .. "thank you very much, it is the best photo from my vacation .. you obviously know how to photograph" Now THAT felt good 🙂

 

[kmallick]

here is mine

here is mine

"Nice portrait, but why is the background so blurry?"

 

[odin626]

one I get a lot from my family:
"Your camera takes such nice photos"

and from my friends:
"Your lens cap's on" --when, in fact, it isn't.

 

[tlitody]

web forum question "Whats the cheapest" = euphemism for "I'm a cheapskate"

web forum question "Whats the best?" = euphemism for "I'm clueless"

web forum question "Whats the best and cheapest" = euphemism for "I'm a cheapskate and completely clueless"

web forum term "Shoot" = euphemism for "If this camera was a gun you'd be dead"

"Oh f**k the shutters jammed" = euphemism for "Where's my backup camera"

"Oh f**k the batteries dead" = euphemism for "I'm a plonker I should have charged it"

Q: Would you like to see my holiday snaps? A: Is that the time? I must be going

 

[SolaresLarrave]

Last weekend, I went into one of those No Camera zones (inside the movie theater). They are very strict about checks, and the guard demanded the battery of my camera (M6).

Me: You know I can still use it without battery
Him: *pauses* then give me the memory card
Me: It's film.
Him: *disbelief* *pause* give me the battery

I opened it up and showed there was no film. That seemed to calm him down.

Was this person checking out all those with cellphones in their pockets? I did get similar lines when I went to the movies in Costa Rica. It had been a long day and we wanted to see a movie. Went in there with my Nikon F100 and the first thing I hear is "you cannot take photos inside the theater."

I showed the camera with the lens cap on and said "I don't intend to take photos inside a movie theater" but wanted to say "why don't you tell the same thing to all the people coming in with camera cellphones?"

Oh, well...

 

[sahe69]

Bokeh ....😱

oh yes, I forgot lense

How about; "That lense has a really smoooth bokeh! Sharpest I've ever seen" 😀

 

[eddie1960]

At an airport (when traveling to New Zealand with



But I really enjoyed a recent experience from Spain while shooting with Mamiya 6 at some historical place in Sevilla and was approached by a young man who (obviously patiently waiting until I finish my shot) asked me to make him a photo with his digital P&S. So I checked quickly the settings, added a flash (he was in a shade contrary to the background), composed, shot and handled the camera back and we exchanged greetings. Few minutes later ha came to me with words .. "thank you very much, it is the best photo from my vacation .. you obviously know how to photograph" Now THAT felt good 🙂[

nice, some people do get it
not the gear the photographer
(not that i don't suffer gear envy some times but i try and stay realistic, i went through the same envy with audio for a long while finally stopping when my investment hit close to 10 grand, lived with that for over a decade now)

 

[tapesonthefloor]

PROFESSIONAL.

It's the most misused word in any field.

(Sorry. I bet it's has already been mentioned in this thread.)

 

[leicashot]

PROFESSIONAL.

It's the most misused word in any field.

(Sorry. I bet it's has already been mentioned in this thread.)

FOLLOWING ON FROM THIS -

"Oh you're a photographer?"

- next response goes:

1. "oh I do a little photography myself"
2. "I'm a photographer too"
3. "I have this friend who's a photographer and he/she is amazing. You should see their website or pics on facebook"

 

[coelacanth]

"Your photography is awesome! You should do weddings!"

+1.

At SFMoMA, a guy stopped me and asked "Do you think film is still higher resolution than digital?"

Seeing my MP: so that's the new digital one?

Lady claiming she's a professional photographer, seeing my Leica CL: "so thats a leica?" me: "yeah but it's made in japan by minolta" her: "oh so it's not a real leica"

Same lady asked me if I was a "pro." I said no and she started lecturing me how I should use different systems for different projects.

Seeing me pulling Elmar-M to shooting position: "so you can zoom? Leica is cool!"

Me buying all pola 600 films walgreens near my office had, a customer next to me: "haven't you heard digital?"

 

[emraphoto]

'smile'

🙁🙁🙁🙁

 

[jbrianfoto]

"How far can you see with that?"

Question asked to me all the time when using long Nikkor glass (old 400mm f/4.5 and 300mm 2.8).

 

[Paul Luscher]

Well, there was also the time I was happily shooting away with an M3, and some guy walked up and said to me, "Is that a rangefinder?.....you'd take much better photos if you weren't using that old piece of s**t."

Needless to say, the old piece of s**t took some pretty damn fine photos anyway....