Is age a good gauge for competency?
- Thread starter allenleonhart
- Start date
Wholeheartedly, I love photography. However, as many times as I there were people around me who were thinking of turning to photography for their only living, as many times I put my best efforts to persuade them to find another rice ball and leave photography as a hobby only.If you are thinking of turning your hobby into a profession, my personal opinion is to find something else. Anyone with a camera will pretend to be a "photographer" (and that's a lot of people with cameras
). Then again, in my life I always did what I considered right and what was in my heart, thus I am a bad teacher, but not a photographer!
Firstly, film SLRs and rangefinders don't make you a good photographer. Seriously. I dare to say this since I shoot with a rangefinder. And my photography can never compare with the likes of Uncle TungTong and the other fabulous street/documentary photogs who still manage to make awesome photos with a big, fat DSLR.
Honestly, I think age has very little to do with photography. I'm sure there are a couple of "kids" out here with works that put most adult photographers to utter shame.
Age however, plays an important role in your mindset towards things, which I feel is a factor in photography. It's about thinking more maturely and has nothing to do with knowledge. Experience has less to do with photography than your mindset towards the world. I am still a somewhat ignorant 16-year-old but I have seen how much my photography has evolved in less than a year. I will show you a few examples in my next post.
assuming everything constant, only differences are:
1: 17 year photog has amazing skills compared to a 30 year old photog
2: same equipment
are u able to clearly say that u can hire solely based on skills and portfolio only?
i suspect here that many have the mentality that older = better. something which i am also a partial believer.
i am taking a totally neutral stance here. just wanna see how ppl actually view this topic
good for my gp sake wahaha.
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assuming everything constant, only differences are:
1: 17 year photog has amazing skills compared to a 30 year old photog
2: same equipment
are u able to clearly say that u can hire solely based on skills and portfolio only?
i suspect here that many have the mentality that older = better. something which i am also a partial believer.
i am taking a totally neutral stance here. just wanna see how ppl actually view this topic
Seems like you are pushing pretty hard for the 17 year old.
If the skills (i.e portfolio, not technical handling of different camera) skills of the 17 is better, then I'll take the 17 year old.
no lar. wanna see if there could be a shift in the general mentality on age.:think:
okkies. realised may phrase this in a biased way already.
rank the things most important to u when choosing a photographer
1: age
2: portfolio
3: equipment
4: experience (how long in industry)
5: how big is their company
edited the first post to suit the change. this would allow more fairness in selecting what is more impt.
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Can teach well to who, under what conditions? Can anyone teach or handle a student that say, has ADD? What if the student completely lacks technical knowledge, can one easily communicate things like circle of confusion and so forth.
This is not just about experience, but mindset to handle situations like this.
first is a ktv joint,
so maybe age matters for the,.... er, company provided there?
second is a restaurant.
now i m lost too.
cooking is like photography,
an art form.
age nor experience counts imo.
hmm.. my fault for not reading the thread carefully. Thought it was for a photography assignment, now realised its to hire someone to teach photography.
But you already say both can teach well, so its a matter of costs then.
hmm.. my fault for not reading the thread carefully. Thought it was for a photography assignment, now realised its to hire someone to teach photography.
But you already say both can teach well, so its a matter of costs then.
yea. then i realsied teach well is gonna be way more subjective in terms of competency:bsmilie: so i edited the first post to become shoot well only:thumbsup:
some ppl can shoot well. yet cant teach.
since i'm gonna measure competency, might as well just place it as shoot well.
My personal opinion is that as you grow older, the more attached you feel to your childhood memories. Age changes things.
It's like how 5 years ago, I detested the idea of sitting next to someone of the opposite gender. Today? I have a girlfriend. Things change with age.
A sample of my photography today:
My photography a year ago:
Both are the same in terms of technical composition. The difference? My thoughts when I took each of the photographs.
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haha and I don't intend to take a stand either.
Today, I would definitely hire a 17-year-old provided his skills are good, similar to what ahbian said. However, if were still starting out photography, I wouldn't.
Sadly, you have to face the facts. This world is too materialistic. The easiest way to gauge material wealth is through the $ sign.
Ask any guy on the road whether he thinks someone with a Canon 1ds Mk999 takes better photos than a guy with a 300d. Obviously, he would be prejudiced in making his decision.
Age is just another easy way to "gauge" one's competency. Would you trust your 10-year-old brother/son with your platinum credit card? Nope you won't. Would you trust your 50-year-old dad or grandfather? More likely so.
yep true true. a good point to make. maturity lvl will increase with age supposedly:sweat::thumbsup:
i would go for;
1. experience (can't afford screw ups for my event)
2. portfolio (obvious)
3. how big is their company (just to make sure they are not fly by night operators)
4. equipment (decent equipment helps)
5. age (if he/she is well established in the industry, then he/she can't be that young after all)
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