Well, over the years I have saw too much "photographed by" watermarks on digital photos. I expect these photographers are Chinese, due to the watermarking on piece of art comes from Eastern Art Society instead of Western. You would see a little square with several small traditional Chinese words on the left bottom of every piece of art produced in the past eras, particularly in China. These arts include cursive/manuscript, black ink bamboo, etc.
From the ancient to modern, the Western Art Society rarely does any watermarking on the piece of art. Even those famous artiest like Da Vinci, Picasso., poet like William Shakespeare did not. And Yet, they invented the optical device to capture the scene (book of optic), "camera" as we referred now.
I personally believe that each photograph is a piece of art, nothing more or less than a painting in the past. There are many terms share between photography and paintings, such as "Portrait", "Landscape", "Illustration". Obiously there are some new terms that do not exist in the past, such as "Shuttle Speed", "Focus", "Lens" and we all know that these are belonged to the camera and is a scientific term for composing a photo. Beaware of "Composing", which means the process of taking the photo, which "compose" the light condition, focus point, white balance, depth of field, etc. And these process can be carefully evaluated with Mathematical Modelling, which makes it to be a scientific job. We can say that the photograph is a piece of art that is produced from a scientific process.
Now, my question is, "What is a professional photographer?"
Some give me the answer that those who put the watermarking on their photos.
Some told me that when you can save your life, e.g. make money with the photo you take.
Some said when you have enough experience.
Some said if majority of the professional photographer agree on the photo you take.
Some said if your photo inspires them.
Well I personally REJECT every single answer above.
1st, even a lousy "camera-man" can put watermarking on their photo.
2nd, I never heard any artiest "PROMOTE" their own painting. Have you seen/heard Picasso offer a price for his painting?
3rd, I can't justify the word "experience". This is not an RPG game where your experience is shown in numbers.
4th, oh my god, professional photographer again, damn, here we go again. This is just like the answer in digital dictionary for Google. "What is Google." "Google is a Google Searching Engine".
5th, Oh well, Picasso's painting can't inspire me. In fact, I don't even know what the hell he was drawing.
If anyone wants to believe the above blaff, I don't mind, go ahead. I personally believe that when somebody "Offer" you a price for your photo without you "Request" it, then you are a professional. Till then, please stop pretending you are professional.
