I try to avoid dealing with fans first hand when checking out my photos which have been uncredited or manipulated because their initial reactions will always be violent. Sometimes to save them from being red flagged in a site, I have to talk directly to them because I understand how it is to be a fan.
We are human beings with brains, and we know that there are people who are behind the creation of these photographs. We should know better, being a camwhore country.
The Philippines – a celebrity driven country, as we post photos we take of ourselves and what we do. We are but a small country, but with high percentage of people with cameras.
I’ve had my fair share of being victimized by copyright infringement in the past. Initially I was furious, but I don’t want to cause one hell of a drama online pointing fingers. I realized it was a waste of time. Instead, I talk to the people who have power who could immediately help me with the situation. They are willing to help you out more than you think. I’ve had a product pulled out nationwide and the order didn’t even come from me.
I never joined that group which says, por que may DSLR ka na photographer kabecause I don’t really care if each and every person in this country gets a DSLR like how they all have mobile phones. It is the way to the future, and it cannot be stopped.
We have too much memory lag, attention deficit disorders, short attention spans which sprung from exposure to too much media. It could also be being face to face with a computer so early in our lives, that we need a camera to document the things that we do, lest we forget.
I started taking photos NOT because I wanted to be a celebrity. I had memory loss and cannot remember majority of the events during the years of my life near the end of the 90s and the beginning of the millenium that I started blogging earlier this decade to document what I did. I don’t know if it’s brain damage or repressed memory. I don’t want to elaborate, I think I’ve spoken about before when I blogged in livejournal. I’m not complaining, because “Blessed are the forgetful, for they get the better even of their blunders” – Nietzche
However, most of us want to remember and want to keep our memories safely locked in our hard drives, even if it is no relevance or consequence to the world, or anyone at all. We’re not satisfied with a thought of the past. We want physical, visual evidence to take with us everywhere we go.
I know how it feels to want to say you were at an event. Even if you’ve taken what you consider crappy photos, you will have SOLID proof in a world of lies and deceit. In a world where a blogger could easily pretend he or she was living in London when she is not. These days photographs could be the easiest way to prove the truth more than words.
Since most of us own a camera, we know very well that we captured a moment in time, only unique to us since it’s what OUR eyes saw. A person could have captured the exact same moment, but it still would be different since it would come from a slightly different perspective. So a photograph is a unique thumbprint of a photographer in that split second in the whole wide universe. It’s YOURS. That’s part of the joy you go through being the photographer, even if you don’t consciously know it, THAT is what you’re feeling.
The moment these photographers share their pictures for other people to see is a blessing. Because it is rare to see something that came directly from another person’s eye. That is why I respect all photographers, even the newbies, the amateur ones and encourage them to keep taking photos and post them if they could.
I want to share the joy of what I experience to other people, so they could feel what I went through in seeing what I saw.
It is when people take advantage and manipulate these photos that it becomes a disgrace, because you are already telling a lie the moment you open that photograph in photoshop and do ANYTHING with it. It is not your eye which saw it, it is the photographer’s and it means you are manipulating the photographer’s view, even if it is just the watermark you changed, you still changed it. Worse, you OWNED it without the thankfulness one should have when looking at a nice photo.
I know how it feels to be a fan and wished that sometimes I could have taken the photographs some other people did, but I just appreciate what I see in front of me and THANK whoever the person is who was kind enough to send it out for the world to see.
To me, no photos are crappy, they are YOUR point of view and it is unique in all the universe. Think about it, it’s wonderful.
If people are just more open and graceful and THANKFUL. Instead of our human nature to be greedy, selfish and jealous — this would never be a problem.
