Beginner Placing "Photography" after your name on social media/website

Mozziephotography

Mozziephotography

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At what level in your photographic development should you be allowed to place "Photography" after your name? Is there an alternative, for someone like me, who has yet to attain a reasonable skill level?

Mozziephotography … change it to?
 
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NAME + Photography looks amatuer for any level IMHO ...It shouts one man band for a start and although one man bands do exist in the pro worls.. customers will still see amatuer..... Company name + Photogrpahy looks so much more professional IMHO
 
Oh, I'd be careful! Calling yourself anything 'photography' gets lots of flack. There's always someone who thinks he is better or is offended by your claim. Best to leave it blank, I think. Or paint a target on your head and be ready to duck.
 
West Camera said:
Oh, I'd be careful! Calling yourself anything 'photography' gets lots of flack. There's always someone who thinks he is better or is offended by your claim. Best to leave it blank, I think. Or paint a target on your head and be ready to duck.
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Oh so true
 
KIPAX said:
NAME + Photography looks amatuer for any level IMHO ...It shouts one man band for a start and although one man bands do exist in the pro worls.. customers will still see amatuer..... Company name + Photogrpahy looks so much more professional IMHO
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I kind of get what you mean but when the OP is thinking of using ‘snapper’ I doubt they are thinking of a becoming a pro anytime soon. It sounds like a personal portfolio site than a selling site.

Regarding website names you can now get .photography as an option rather than using .com or .co.uk.

Name.photography sounds much better as a portfolio address than including photography into something like namephotography.com. There is the point that adding photography defines what you do especially if there are other websites from people who have the same name as you.
 
West Camera said:
Oh, I'd be careful! Calling yourself anything 'photography' gets lots of flack. There's always someone who thinks he is better or is offended by your claim. Best to leave it blank, I think. Or paint a target on your head and be ready to duck.
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would it? I’ve had robcain . photography for a few years now and haven't got any flack. Even if I did I would largely ignore internet keyboard warriors. I don’t proclaim to be the worlds best photographer, actually far from it, but the portfolio is just a way for friends and family to follow what I’m up to photography wise.

mossienet said:
Might just call myself "Mozzie" I raised money for malarianomore through my photos and found a superb little logo of a mosquito. Hence the Mozzie bit.
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Whatever name you go with you will need to check what’s available or even similar to what you are thinking of using.

mozzie.photos is an available website address. To me that doesn’t sound too pretentious.
 
Photography is just a hobby for me and ive used Edge Photography, usually as a watermark, for a few years with no issues whatsoever.
 
I few years ago I used to shoot motorsport at one particular venue where if said you were a pro / business you could get a press pass which got you to other parts of the track normally closed, so I called myself merlinphotographics and had some business cards printed just so I could hand one over when booking in.
I still use the name as a watermark and a login but other than that I think its a bit pretentious unless you are earning your living with your camera.
 
Dave70D said:
Dave is my first name and Rohan is my middle name.
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I think I have your trousers and fleeces - they have your middle name in/on them!!!
 
rob-nikon said:
I kind of get what you mean but when the OP is thinking of using ‘snapper’ I doubt they are thinking of a becoming a pro anytime soon. It sounds like a personal portfolio site than a selling site.
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Maybe SnapSnap or SnapSnapper for a canine photographer? :exit:
 
I use mine after being advised too as a friend had seen some of my photos on a Facebook page by a member claiming they were there’s and offering to have them printed, for a fee of course, I wouldn’t mind but the ones “stolen” weren’t very good. I don’t use it on every photo, and when I do I try and do it as small as I can and as light as I can but still able to be read.
 
It's a delicate matter. Many an amateur, enjoying having and playing with expensive equipment and enamoured with a fantasy of being 'pro', wants to bolster their self-image, and self-labelling can be a part of that. But it can just as easily label you as a wannabee.

But even if photography is your livelihood, or a decent part of it, appending the word 'photography' to your name certainly brands you as 'trade'. It suggests that you are for hire.

I think you might find that photographers who operate in the cultural sector would avoid styling their identity in a way that suggested trade. So to pluck a name from the hat, you wouldn't see 'Martin Parr Photography', you'd just see 'Martin Parr'.

But it's a free world ...
 
I'd never do it but even when I was making a good living from photography I didn't consider myself "a professional".

I had a discussion with a tax inspector sometime around the middle of the 1970s about my tax return. One of his minor queries was about the word "photographer" I'd put in the occupation column. He asked if I considered myself to be a "professional photographer". I told him I didn't think of myself as any kind of professional. His response was: "in that case put Commercial Photographer there" and so for the next few years that's how I described myself.
 
You're saying this KIPAX because of all the freebies that get given a camera for xmas and then make a facebook page with NAME then PHOTOGRAPHY.... i think it can be more personal than a business name... people know who it is then
 
There is NO level and in reality very few if any people care what you call yourself unless it is the same as someone else.....!
 
Studio488commercial said:
There is NO level and in reality very few if any people care what you call yourself unless it is the same as someone else.....!
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eh?

Depends what you doing with the name.. If you want to makie it into a business then a good name is essential.. one people can remember.. isnt too long or wierd that they cant spell it.... of course a good name is important

if its just for facebook and you dont care who looks at them then yeagh... but best all round to be future proof.. :)
 
KIPAX said:
eh?

Depends what you doing with the name.. If you want to makie it into a business then a good name is essential.. one people can remember.. isnt too long or wierd that they cant spell it.... of course a good name is important

if its just for facebook and you dont care who looks at them then yeagh... but best all round to be future proof.. :)
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Nobody asked about business names and if they are important or not, the OP asked at what level the word photography can be used after their name.
 
Skill level depends which standpoint your coming from. A £5 note to a poor man is riches, to a rich man it is cigarette lighting paper
 
Surely if you take photographs then you are a photographer, it doesn't make any difference if your photos are good, bad or indifferent you are still a photographer.

I have seen some really good photos from big name photographers that I wouldn't give house room to, Why because I don't like them despite them being technically good. If people see your work they will decide if they like it, think it is worth what you are asking (assuming you are selling), would want you to take photos for them etc.
 
Photography is not a profession. Anybody can claim to be a photographer and frequently do irrespective of talent, whatever that may be.
 
I've been using "IDJ media" for more than a decade, just thought it makes for an ideal all-in-one "umbrella" title to cover my cartoon drawing and meteorology (weather forecasting in particular) as well as my photography. Have an ongoing "blogspot" site and even an AOL email address with the same name.
 
KIPAX said:
NAME + Photography looks amatuer for any level IMHO ...It shouts one man band for a start and although one man bands do exist in the pro worls.. customers will still see amatuer..... Company name + Photogrpahy looks so much more professional IMHO
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Hasn't seemed to have stifled Joe McNally Photography. IMHO using a host like photoshelter or smugmug and having the site name as name.photoshelter.com comes across as more am rather than having your own .com .co.uk etc
 
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telling someone who you are and what you do in the tittle can only be a good thing surely ?
If people are genuinly offended cause someone chooses to name their website after their name and what they do then they really need to get over it and worry about more important things frankly.
 
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