Well, you can't... well, you can, but it's going to be pretty low-fi ya know... Yeah, you could do it if that's all you had... You can print 6x4's You can make yourself a wedding album on instagram. You could print a little book for all your guests as a mementos...
But that's not what this post is about... This post is about the attitude attached.
I was driving out to Healsville sanctuary yesterday with the family, Seb was asleep and M and I were talking about photography, I was trying to work out if I should get a certain type of camera - we eventually managed to get to talking about how photographers are an opinionated bunch, me included, and we are... You know, if someone posted "I can only get someone with an iPhone to take my photos" in one of the professional forums on the internet, that person would be laughed off, escorted out, ridiculed... But why? If that's all they could afford / if that's all they wanted... if that's all... then who are we to judge? I used to be one of those people - so worried about my gear / the gear people used to define their work that I was missing the point... Generally it ain't the 'professionals' that are all about the gear, it's the fauxfessionals or the amateurs with a 9 to 5 and a serious hobby / gear addiction. I'm the first to admit, I love tech, I love gadgets and I love my iPhone... I'll get a 5 as soon as I've got the moolah. But we have to remember, it ain't the gear that defines us, its what we create with whatever we have...
The only reason I can think of that there's all this worry and talking down to people doing the best with what they can is that, people with nice gear and more experience are going to lose work to this army of iPhone equipped photographer types? If you're worried, work harder, set yourself apart from someone with a phone camera or a point and shoot (does anyone bother with a point & shoot anymore?)
If that's not the reason, then what is?
This is a creative industry, why then are our collective creative brains so against people using different ways to create their art? 90% of the population can't tell what your photo, 600px wide on a blog or Facebook was created with... Yes, if you're printing a sweet wedding album, then you're going to notice... If you're printing large, then you're probably going to notice... well, the pixel peepers amongst us will... I had a friend in my office recently, he picked up a print I'd done on my Canon Pixma, it was a 5x7 of a coffee photograph I'd taken with my iPhone... when I told him what I'd shot it on, he was blown away...
Attitude, Snobbery and Hate, there's no place for it...
