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Admire his persistence and dedication to creative commons. That said, I can see why professional news photographers feel threatened and perhaps a little insulte

Admire his persistence and dedication to creative commons. That said, I can see why professional news photographers feel threatened and perhaps a little insulted too... Most shots in the article and on his Flickr feed look merely 'good enough' or 'usable' (as opposed to 'great').

amitparikh 11y ago
If 'good enough' and 'usable' @ a price of 'free' is what's becoming ubiquitous, hasn't Mr. Skidmore just locked in on a new-ish market equilibrium?
ghaff 11y ago
To be fair, the vast majority of photos that even top professionals take probably just fall into the "good enough" category as well. It's often hard to do a whole lot exciting with someone giving a speech from a podium. Magazine cover shot material is relatively rare. I also suspect that, in at least some cases, the pros' press passes may get them better shooting locations and opportunities. That said, I basically agree with you. And I've certainly met photographers shooting conferences and similar who nonetheless manage to produce images that are a cut above.
- notlisted 11y ago
  Top professionals take many crappy pictures. If they have just once shot of a situation/person, that crappy shot may end up in the feed, but usually the bad stuff is filtered out by them or their agency. I see a lot in the flickr feed that should have been left out, or at least cropped.
  - ghaff 11y ago
    One of my annoyances about flickr is that I wish there were a way to highlight a subset of photos as my "gallery" which would be the default view unless someone wanted to see everything. An observation I've heard a number of people make about professionals is that, if they're covering an event, they'll basically always come back with something solid and publishable even it it's not knock-your-socks-off great. This is admittedly easier in general these days but was harder when you were shooting film under difficult conditions.
kodablah 11y ago
I see why they feel threatened, but I don't agree that it's this photographer's fault. If the consumers don't want/need high quality, paid photos in their publications (as voiced by their dollars) then maybe the market for them is disappearing. I am surprised that a protectionist, union-esque good-ol-boys club of photographers hasn't emerged that would use money to encourage organizers to prevent this person from taking photos. Seems every industry threatened with technology and the cheapening (or "hobbying" or "freeing") of their product tends to fight the producers at the expense of the consumers thereby accelerating their downturn.
- tamana 11y ago
  How is it "accelerating", not " delaying it a little "?
  - kodablah 11y ago
    Because it's at the expense of the consumers causing them to turn to the alternatives faster than they otherwise would were no protectionists measures in place (of course tech advancements are the real accelerator).
njharman 11y ago
They feel just as threatened as book publishers, MPAA, RIAA and all the short-sighted content producers who have been relying on quirks of technology that allowed them to monopolize distribution of content. Quirks that no longer exist in Internet/Digital age. These people have and continue abusing the legal system to shore up their previous monopoly.
- tamana 11y ago
  You show a lot of disdain for people trying to scrape out a living.
- bobby_9x 11y ago
  Distribution of content is easy, yes. But creation of content is still just as difficult. Intellectual property laws are a bit extreme, but they also protect the small inventor/business owner. Without these protections, we would have an increase in trade secrets and any individual or company that had enough money and resources could just sit there and legally rip everyone off. China is a good example of this. With weak IP laws, tecnology moves at a snails pace and small business owners really can’t compete.
  - sangnoir 11y ago
    > With weak IP laws, tecnology moves at a snails pace and small business owners really can’t compete. I beg to differ. With weak IP laws, technology moves at breakneck speeds with no artificial roadblocks (patents). Take dual-sim phones as an example of Chinese innovation - virtually every Chinese OEM supports them. Imagine if Apple had invented (and patented) this tech: only Apple would have it.
  - greggman 11y ago
    I'm not sure creating content is "just as difficult". Writing a novel hasn't changed. It's the same as 50 years ago. Photography: there are many time consuming effects that are not longer time consuming because of digital photography and digital editing. Music: It used to require expensive equipment which is why you'd rent a studio. Now it requires a single PC or even just a single phone to replace $$$$$ of equipment and people. In other words it used to be much more work. Movies: digital video cameras and access to cheap software have made it much less work for a tons of things that used to be much more time consuming. Games: all the various engines have taken away man years of work that were needed to write an engine and all the support tools.
sangnoir 11y ago
To project your comment onto the software world: "That said, I can see why professional software developers feel threatened and perhaps a little insulted too... Most projects in the article and on his Github profile look merely 'good enough' or 'usable' (as opposed to 'great')" Which isn't too far off the mark, if I correctly recall Microsoft and Oracle's attitudes to free software circa 1999. Yet here we are.

amitparikh 11y ago

If 'good enough' and 'usable' @ a price of 'free' is what's becoming ubiquitous, hasn't Mr. Skidmore just locked in on a new-ish market equilibrium?

ghaff 11y ago

To be fair, the vast majority of photos that even top professionals take probably just fall into the "good enough" category as well. It's often hard to do a whole lot exciting with someone giving a speech from a podium. Magazine cover shot material is relatively rare. I also suspect that, in at least some cases, the pros' press passes may get them better shooting locations and opportunities. That said, I basically agree with you. And I've certainly met photographers shooting conferences and similar who nonetheless manage to produce images that are a cut above.

notlisted 11y ago
Top professionals take many crappy pictures. If they have just once shot of a situation/person, that crappy shot may end up in the feed, but usually the bad stuff is filtered out by them or their agency. I see a lot in the flickr feed that should have been left out, or at least cropped.
- ghaff 11y ago
  One of my annoyances about flickr is that I wish there were a way to highlight a subset of photos as my "gallery" which would be the default view unless someone wanted to see everything. An observation I've heard a number of people make about professionals is that, if they're covering an event, they'll basically always come back with something solid and publishable even it it's not knock-your-socks-off great. This is admittedly easier in general these days but was harder when you were shooting film under difficult conditions.

kodablah 11y ago

I see why they feel threatened, but I don't agree that it's this photographer's fault. If the consumers don't want/need high quality, paid photos in their publications (as voiced by their dollars) then maybe the market for them is disappearing. I am surprised that a protectionist, union-esque good-ol-boys club of photographers hasn't emerged that would use money to encourage organizers to prevent this person from taking photos. Seems every industry threatened with technology and the cheapening (or "hobbying" or "freeing") of their product tends to fight the producers at the expense of the consumers thereby accelerating their downturn.

tamana 11y ago
How is it "accelerating", not " delaying it a little "?
- kodablah 11y ago
  Because it's at the expense of the consumers causing them to turn to the alternatives faster than they otherwise would were no protectionists measures in place (of course tech advancements are the real accelerator).

njharman 11y ago

They feel just as threatened as book publishers, MPAA, RIAA and all the short-sighted content producers who have been relying on quirks of technology that allowed them to monopolize distribution of content. Quirks that no longer exist in Internet/Digital age. These people have and continue abusing the legal system to shore up their previous monopoly.

tamana 11y ago
You show a lot of disdain for people trying to scrape out a living.
bobby_9x 11y ago
Distribution of content is easy, yes. But creation of content is still just as difficult. Intellectual property laws are a bit extreme, but they also protect the small inventor/business owner. Without these protections, we would have an increase in trade secrets and any individual or company that had enough money and resources could just sit there and legally rip everyone off. China is a good example of this. With weak IP laws, tecnology moves at a snails pace and small business owners really can’t compete.
- sangnoir 11y ago
  > With weak IP laws, tecnology moves at a snails pace and small business owners really can’t compete. I beg to differ. With weak IP laws, technology moves at breakneck speeds with no artificial roadblocks (patents). Take dual-sim phones as an example of Chinese innovation - virtually every Chinese OEM supports them. Imagine if Apple had invented (and patented) this tech: only Apple would have it.
- greggman 11y ago
  I'm not sure creating content is "just as difficult". Writing a novel hasn't changed. It's the same as 50 years ago. Photography: there are many time consuming effects that are not longer time consuming because of digital photography and digital editing. Music: It used to require expensive equipment which is why you'd rent a studio. Now it requires a single PC or even just a single phone to replace $$$$$ of equipment and people. In other words it used to be much more work. Movies: digital video cameras and access to cheap software have made it much less work for a tons of things that used to be much more time consuming. Games: all the various engines have taken away man years of work that were needed to write an engine and all the support tools.

sangnoir 11y ago

To project your comment onto the software world: "That said, I can see why professional software developers feel threatened and perhaps a little insulted too... Most projects in the article and on his Github profile look merely 'good enough' or 'usable' (as opposed to 'great')" Which isn't too far off the mark, if I correctly recall Microsoft and Oracle's attitudes to free software circa 1999. Yet here we are.