Dr. Photographylove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Photoshop

There is no denying the fact that photography has changed forever. We will never go back to the days of seeing people carrying around twenty canisters of film in their pocket. We will never un-see the countless Myspace angles and Facebook party pics. We live in the digital age.

My very first camera that I owned was a film camera. Its was a crappy plastic point and shoot, that I literally had to tape together when I used it, not that it mattered because it still light leaked all over the place. My first professional grade camera was a Canon EOS Elan II. I learned how to use a darkroom before I learned how to use Photoshop. But, I know that I am one of only a few these days that still learn these things at all.

12 Excuses for Shooting Photos for Free: Rebuttal.

I commonly read photography blogs, to see others views about the field, how they approach marketing, and so on. I found this today, which is a list of 12 reasons why shooting for free is a bad idea. Although I agree with the sentiment that you should not sell yourself short, I think it is incredibly ignorant to assume that all photographers want to make loads of cash off of their art.
First off, money isn’t everything. I consider myself an artist, who is making art, when I am taking photographs. Just because I am not getting paid to take the photos does not undermine their worth to me, and to those who enjoy them.
Most of the work I do is for free, or at the very least, at prices far below normal rates. I don’t feel like I’m selling myself short, and I definitely don’t feel like I am taking away paid opportunities from other photographers.
I did cut out some of the excuses, some because I did somewhat agree the points, others because I felt like I would repeating myself way too much.