mamarazzi

So as many of you have witnessed or have fallen prey to, there is an overwhelming surge in what I have come to know as Mamarazzi. What?? Mamarazzi??? Y’all heard me right. Now, historically, the mamarazzi didn’t affect anyone but their family but with the constant improvements to digital photography enhancement the mamarazzi has staked a rather large claim in the realm of professional photography.

Mamarazzi as defined by the Urban Dictionary:
1. Mothers who constantly follow their children around with several cameras and video taking equipment, snapping photos at each turn and documenting each milestone or event with at least two dozen photos and a video.
2. Groups of aforementioned mothers
3. When referring to yourself as described above
1. You can’t even get close to the swings because of all the mamarazzi.
2. I can’t believe how many photos I took of baby Madison on the slide! I’m such a mamarazzi!
3. What’s with all the mamarazzi? It’s just a bloody hair cut.

Much like how the famous dread the paparazzi, the professional photographer dreads the growing population of the mamarazzi. I know, some will say that its a phase and that there shouldn’t be much emphasis placed on their growing popularity… I say to not care is irresponsible and here is why.

In an already competitive business filled with talent, the growing populous of the kit camera cartel offering sessions for $20 which includes 1,345 images on CD significantly decreases the the true professionals ability to compete. An average customer, with little to no understanding of true portrait art, will, 99% of the time, choose the lesser priced “business” unknowingly ruining their families memories. I know, y’all professionals say “That’s not the clientele I want anyways” … bull.. I want those clients, I want every client I can book but I will not compromise my ability to pay my bills so my session fees and print packages, competitively priced, will not be lowered.

I think that, in the long run, the true professional will emerge over this fad… quality over quantity, professional over “friend”…. these will one day, again, reign supreme in the photography world. It is by educating potential clients that we, the photographers, will come out on top of the Picmonkey patrons… to re-take what is rightfully ours, the business of stopping time and preserving that time in a manner that will be looked at for years to come as a precious memory without selective color, without holga or whatever else Picmonkey offers…

I guess the bottom line is that I will not succumb nor will I fold to the pricing offered by the popup flash professional. The mamarazzi will either learn the incredible (sometimes difficult) craft of photography or fade away. Some will get sued out of ‘business’ because they provided 800 blurry photographs of the wedding they did for $20. The potential clients will either become educated or risk loosing their most precious moments to the green box brigade… either way y’all… I am in this for the long haul.