Topic: Seven Levels of Photographers (by Ken Rockwell)

[Frank in JC]

If you've browsed the net on the subject of photography enough, I'm sure you've come across this guy.  I don't agree with everything he has to say, but he does offer a lot of sound advice.

His article on the seven levels of photographers is entertaining:

http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/7.htm

[stirinthesauce]

funny read 

[mizary]

yeah, some people love KR and some seem to hate him...

"Bad rich amateurs think fuzzy B/W images of poor people are art. "

funny stuff.

--mizary

[Brian]

so there's just as much ego in the pro photog world as there is in the pro audio world.

excellent!

[stirinthesauce]

so there's just as much ego in the pro photog world as there is in the pro audio world.

excellent!

just an elephant of a different color

[datbrad]

Here is another good link from the same article: http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/notcamera.htm

While some of the paragraphs are tongue and cheek, they really ring true. Photography is not about the the equipment used, it's about the talented eye of the artist that uses it.

Our hobby, audio recording, is very much like photography. Just having the most expensive rig money can buy does not automatically mean a person is going to make the best recordings. It's the ability of the recordist to "see" an acoustic space before sound fills it and make the correct calls on placement, height, capsules, patterns, etc. that separates the artists from the "measurbators".

"Equipment Measurbator" is a description that fits a good number of tapers, unfortunately.

[Brian]

i tend to "see" an acoustic space after some sort of sound fills it but that's just me

[Frank in JC]

"Equipment Measurbator" is a description that fits a good number of tapers, unfortunately.

And "audiophiles." 

At least with photography, I think most people start with the desire to take photographs.  Audio equipment, on the other hand, is often purchased as a man toy by people with little genuine interest in music.  Just look at the grumpy bastards in the Audio Asylum who never mention music in their posts.

There's nothing wrong with appreciating a machine for it's own sake (a camera is an engineering marvel after all) but if that's the only value it has to the user, then there is something wrong.