Explaining the difficulties of photography to people who refuse to get it

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BradS

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<snip>
I don't like (even jokingly), being told I'm taking an easy way out.

First, do not defend or explain yourself (to people who are attacking you). I was told this by my shrink when I was trying to keep from self destructing during a very painful separation and divorce. I wish someone had told me sooner in life. I'm not going to elaborate further. Do some reading...

Second, just tell these people to fuck off (or, simply ask them to stop). You don't need this kind of harassment and abuse. Nobody does. It should not be tolerated in the work place.
 
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BradS

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another idea....you can throw it back at them. When they assert that you are taking the easy way out (you seem to know that you're not, and further, I suspect this is not really the issue), you can just reply , "...so what if I am? ".
 
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TheGreatGasMaskMan
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another idea....you can throw it back at them. When they assert that you are taking the easy way out (you seem to know that you're not, and further, I suspect this is not really the issue), you can just reply , "...so what if I am? ".
Success not guaranteed... but I'll have to remember it.
 

rayonline_nz

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Don't bother. I find people rather go into a mall, a cafe, a restaurant or a bar. A nice looking resort beach or hotel. I photographing a lake the other day, a rural area, maybe 3 or so cars, a number of cars drove in and didn't stop and did a u turn and drove out after getting there which was a dead end. 4 cars and later 6 motorbikes went to the B&B's restaurant and had their fish and chips, burgers etc ... but by the time we left at 4pm there they had well departed.

In my experience. You are there to pursue photography, please don't slow them down. They rather you go and photograph by yourself. They are really just not interested. I know a few individuals / families who bought a dSLR with a kit lens etc . One of them asked me for my views before. But all of them stopped using them in a few months and went back to their phones. Their goal of dSLRs was basically just to take nice pictures of people and upload onto social media without post processing etc.

I know one lady who is into painting. She also doesn't involve others.

They often say photography is an expensive hobby. I guess they relate to the latest stuff you see in the shops now ie digital photography. However they are happy to spend it on $4US coffees, eating out and fine dining. From New Zealand, fly to Melbourne Australia and enjoy the food and the shopping.

Another someone that got a dSLR after asking me. Just wanted nice gadgets like his friends and a easy to use camera, for family photos. He always wanted to but didn't - he like admires his friends who have Sony A7r cameras and L lenses, Nikon D850 and D5's and Canon 5D's. He only got a digital Rebel. Now gave up and using his phone. He said money to be made in photography is wedding photography because it is a steady income but landscape etc .. just photograph anything for art and he said "like a rubbish truck and tell people that is art".


I have had people (other photographers) say to me that when they first saw some of my black and white work they wondered what led me to choose such a restrictive medium.

Yep, they often say b/w is old style. They say the world now have color film so why shoot in b/w? They relate to b/w photography to b/w television screens. It's not just other people. Why shoot in b/w when everything looks so dark. Occasionally I hear those on photography forums even back in the day they were just into color film.
 
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Theo Sulphate

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If photography makes you happy, it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks.
 

MattKing

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I've been mulling this thread over in my mind, and it occurs to me that your problem might not have anything to do with photography.
No one at any workplace wants to hear about other people's difficulties outside the workplace!
 

jtk

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First, do not defend or explain yourself (to people who are attacking you). I was told this by my shrink when I was trying to keep from self destructing during a very painful separation and divorce. I wish someone had told me sooner in life. I'm not going to elaborate further. Do some reading...

Second, just tell these people to fuck off (or, simply ask them to stop). You don't need this kind of harassment and abuse. Nobody does. It should not be tolerated in the work place.

Either that or recognize that you really do have a continuing problem.
 

Theo Sulphate

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You owe yourself the input from others. You owe the others respect because they may see you and your work more clearly than you do yourself. IMO.

That's true. It seemed to me the OP's co-workers were just harassing him. If the OP's co-workers were just being brutally honest, yes, I see your point.
 
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Funny story from yesterday, I had two different people (one manager and one guy I don't really know) be kind of interested in My Yashica that I had brought with me for some pre work shooting.
 

removed account4

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That's true. It seemed to me the OP's co-workers were just harassing him. If the OP's co-workers were just being brutally honest, yes, I see your point.

sounded to me more like they are trolls. you know just being jerks because they can. the only difference is
these are real people with no edit function instead of some 14 year old girl on her parents wifi.

OP if i can suggest something, and *I* am being brutally honest. Its best to NOT overshare, some people are just jerks, and need to be ignored.
just give the knuckleheads where you work the smile, and "yea whatever" instead of telling them about your personal life and listening to their negativity, its not worth it.
 

jtk

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sounded to me more like they are trolls. you know just being jerks because they can. the only difference is
these are real people with no edit function instead of some 14 year old girl on her parents wifi.

OP if i can suggest something, and *I* am being brutally honest. Its best to NOT overshare, some people are just jerks, and need to be ignored.
just give the knuckleheads where you work the smile, and "yea whatever" instead of telling them about your personal life and listening to their negativity, its not worth it.

Doesn't serve any purpose to label co-workers (or other interested parties) as trolls or jerks. That's a loser-technique. Smarter to ignore. "Yeah whatever" is provocative. Walk off or discuss like a gentleman.

As for "14 year old girls", I know a few who are creatively dedicated and (recently) one who is making interesting prints. I like do girls and most other people..ymmv.
 

Dave Ludwig

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I don't normally participate in threads but could not let this one go by. I believe some people make fun of what they don't understand, or have not experienced, as a mechanism to avoid looking unintelligent, or disconnected somehow, while trying to maintain the perception they possess some type of higher intellect over you. I have found many times deep down these are simply sad people that for one reason or another their life is not fulfilling. Do what you do, take pride in what you do, allow the sad people to be sad because it is them, not you.
 

Adrian Bacon

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I've been mulling this thread over in my mind, and it occurs to me that your problem might not have anything to do with photography.
No one at any workplace wants to hear about other people's difficulties outside the workplace!

+1

I’m a huge fan of separation of church and state so to speak. If somebody is interested and wants to chat, great, otherwise, we’re all there to do a job and go home at the end of the shift. What we do outside of work is our own business, and we don’t owe anybody at our job an explanation about it.

Put another way: does the OP really care about what his coworkers do outside of work? Probably not so much, he just has the sense of mind to not be a jerk about it, whereas his coworkers just happen to be jerks about it. I have very low tolerance for that sort of thing in the workplace. If it’s one or two people, you can usually get HR to perform a course correction, but if it’s several, often it’s better to just go get another job. Life is full of people who for some reason haven’t figured out how to grow up, learning how to deal with that is a very useful life skill.
 

BradS

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Also, me getting picked on for photography hasn't even been the the worst thing I've been picked on for at work either.

You should not get picked on at work...that's not OK.

Sounds like you have a bigger plan (college and a better job, better life) though.
 

pbromaghin

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Sound to me like you work with a bunch of assholes. People in deadend jobs don't like people who have plans for their lives.
 

lxdude

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It does no good to explain when they have no interest in understanding. They are interested in reinforcing their attitude, and if they drag you down they are satisfied.
You could tell them that if you are seeking the "easy way" to making a living, that means you are smarter than they are.
 

BMbikerider

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The question sounds to me like you have a problem with understanding the subject yourself, or cannot find the appropriate words to use when explaining.
 

removed account4

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Doesn't serve any purpose to label co-workers (or other interested parties) as trolls or jerks. That's a loser-technique. Smarter to ignore. "Yeah whatever" is provocative. Walk off or discuss like a gentleman.

As for "14 year old girls", I know a few who are creatively dedicated and (recently) one who is making interesting prints. I like do girls and most other people..ymmv.

there is nothing wrong with realizing someone is a troll and then doing one's best not to feed the troll. some folks haven't progressed much past being a bully in 8th grade. .. its kind of hard to have a meaningful discussion with someone whose purpose is to troll and be a jerk ... if you can, more power to you !
I don't doubt there are 14year olds who are making great art, we NEED more of that ! But weird age+genderbending catfish routines are kind of prevalent on the inter webs. I knew someone years ago who used to regularly have an online persona of a 15year old boy, in reality he was a 50something year old guy with 4 kids. ... whatever ...
YYMVFTSITW
 
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