Idiots asking their mates to do the job and getting rubbish don't make the same mistake twice. But people who are prepared to accept lower quality for less money are a different matter.

When slr cameras with through the lens metering and other fancy bells and whistles became popular in the late '60's early '70's I frequently encountered clients in industrial photography who were convinced that my pro services were unnecessary since "Joe" in the shipping department had the latest and greatest SLR that took great pictures.

Desktop publishing similarly affected the graphic arts and printing companies that produced newsletters and brochures for businesses that didn't have in house art departments.

Now it's DSLR's and mobile phones.

It's a marketing challenge. But marketing itself is just as much a profession as is photography. Sean's idea is a good solution:

"Maybe we should all get together. Have a standards committee to gain membership and start the "use a pro" standard of quality assurance!"

My only addition would be to make sure the standards committee has a least one professional marketer involved.

Great article, keep 'em coming...

Ryan.

When I quit, yes quit, my job at The Aspen Times in Colorado, the editors were not allowed to hire someone to replace me. Then the other photog was laid off.

The writers were given cameras and the photography suffered greatly. My boss even said to me 6 months later that they need a real photographer shooting the news.

And it happened to many newspapers across the nation as they cut staff. The first ones to go were the photogs/multimedia.

And I believe many newspapers are now regretting the decision.

But with such tough times, people aren't going for the high end packages as often, so I decided against expanding my business. I wonder if the field will become obsolete as people start to take pictures and videos for themselves. With personal life recorders only one or two years away, who will want to hire a photographer when their entire life will be captured on their iPods?

Myself included, I do believe that photographers in general do not market well and that we should communicate the benefits of a professional in order to raise awareness.

Maybe we should all get together. Have a standards committee to gain membership and start the "use a pro" standard of quality assurance!

Their quality of work is bad but sadly I don't think that the clients mind that as long as they can justify the cost saving, because ultimately, the photographic image is of no great importance to them...sadly they just don't see the bigger picture.