Uncle Bob Changes the Photography Industry

By John Kim | April 7th, 2010

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A professional photographer has always been highly dependent on the equipment he carries, which leads most people to believe that it’s the equipment that makes the photographer. The reality is that even a semi professional entry level camera has so many bells and whistles that the average photography enthusiast will probably never even touch most of them. They probably don’t even have time to read one page in the manual, and so are limited to pointing, zooming, auto focusing, and shoot. Although he looks like he’s holding professional equipment, he has no clue how to utilize it to the fullest potential, and this is why Uncle Bob has been such an eye sore to a lot of professional photographers today. Uncle Bob by definitions is any person outside an industry who is performing a service in order to save money for themselves or for others. If you’ve ever seen someone at a wedding who looks like a photographer but has a camera that doesn’t quite look professional, that person is probably Uncle Bob.

The reason Uncle Bob has been such a threat is due to the fact that he is cutting into the bottom line of professional photographers. A photographer doesn’t just have an expensive camera, but they have thousands of dollars in accessories which Uncle Bob will never have. The equipment combined with their knowledge allows the photographer to have a certain level of control in their images which usually cannot be achieved with Uncle Bob. The overhead of the equipment combined with the burden of competing with Uncle Bob has definitely put many photographers to the poor house, which is fair game if you really think about it. What is really killing this industry is not Uncle Bob though, but the so called professional photographers whose photos are either comparable or worse than Uncle Bob’s. Lazy photographers who don’t offer the best work possible has tainted the perception of the industry, and we are left with people believing their Uncle Bob can do better at a lower cost.

Although most professional photographers might want you to believe in the importance of their work, but the truth is that the whole industry is a luxury. When economies turn sour the first thing to go are luxuries, and photography is no different. You might want to buy a BMW, but if you don’t have the money you will need to settle for a 1995 Toyata Tercel. So it seems that Uncle Bob will be taking on a lot more clients, dishing out barely acceptable work, and displacing more photographers to the homeless shelters in downtown Los Angeles.

Of course I still believe that the true masters of photography will be able to find high end clients, and do extremely well for their efforts. For the rest of us, we are looking at a future of part-time photographers who use their skills to supplement their current income. Full time photographers will finally understand what it means to be a struggling artist, and it may force them to find a real job. As I’m a web developer, I am fortunate to have a steady income, and still be able to make some extra money doing something rewarding. You won’t be finding me in a soup kitchen anytime soon, so I welcome Uncle Bob to do his thing, no matter how mediocre it might be. But here is a piece of advise for photographers. If you want to survive in this increasingly competitive market, you will have to prove that you are different from the pack. Let your work speak for itself, and never settle for second best. This is the only way to beat Uncle Bob at his own sneaky game, otherwise you just make the rest of us look bad. Your only other option is to smash Uncle Bob’s camera over his head, but I think that’s considered assault.