Bigtimers/Bigtime photographers; a very valid rant from another photographer

A great RANT from another photographer


I recently ran across a rant from another photographer. What’s he ranting about? Pretenders, huge ego assholes, who are absolutely obsessed with throwing the term “pro” around, but really just selling workshops or having a day job on the backend, which pays the bills. 

Take a look, read carefully. An amazing amount of good stuff both in the post, and the comments sections. It’s rare to find this sort of honesty in the LIE & ego-filled world of photography:

Bigtime Photographers

While he, (understandably), didn’t want to name names, I will. Here are some. You’ll recognize these assholes by their trumpet-blowing & lying on various online venues:

Marc Adamus
Mark Metternich
Kevin Mcneal
David Cobb
Adrian Klein
Ryan Dyar
Steve Sieren
Floris van Breugel
Jim Patterson


There are so many more, but these are some of the top bigtimers out there. They all make most of their “photography” money by selling bullshit workshops that don’t teach anything and are mostly designed to fill their own pockets. Worse, many of the images you see in their galleries are taken while teaching workshops (instead of concentrating on teaching their clients). None of them buy the necessary commercial use permits to teach workshops in parks. None of them buy insurance for workshop attendees. None of them operate anything remotely resembling a legitimate business. They are SCAMMERS and self-appointed Bigtimers who are tearing photography apart for their selfish vanity.

Steve Sieren and his Four Seasons hotel showing: What REALLY happened.

Steve Sieren's Four Seasons showing


Remember Steve Sieren harping about his “showing” at the Four Seasons hotel? He just went on & on about that damn thing. Stevie probably wanted to give people the impression that it was some impressive gala at a five star hotel in Manhattan. Of course, that’s not true. Stevie and some other losers had their showing and hung around desperately, hoping that someone would see how passionate about wilderness or how incredible photographers they were. 

Anyway, Stevie provided a photograph of him supposedly posing in front of one of his “internationally recognized for their color and sharpness” masterpieces. But he left out some details. Here’s the real deal:

How it really looked at Steve Sieren's showing at the Four Seasons Hotel

Steve Sieren needs a new logo for his “business”. Here’s my humble suggestion.

Steve Sieren's NEW logo




 We’ve all seen the latest fad. All the LIARS and LOSERS are busily creating their fanciful “watermarks” and posting them all over. Creativity in watermark design is a plus, since the images all look the same, having been copied from other, real photographers, or from themselves. Most watermarks include a mountain or two. You know, because being enthusiastic about mountains, or even just pretending to, is an exceedingly noble ideal that is up there with curing polio or finding a vaccine for measles. You need to spout about your love for “wilderness”, like Marc Adamus does. It will impress your target audience of fat, Visa wielding LOSERS who will buy your workshops or photo tours. 

Anyway, Steve Sieren’s watermark is a rabbit with antlers, as far as I know. Looks rather gay, which could be the reason he and Floris Van Breugel are so thick. Here’s a better one he could use. No need to give me credit; this is what I’m here for. 

Our suggestion for the Steve Sieren Photography logo

Thinking of becoming a professional landscape/nature photographer? Think, again, Gomer! A couple words of advice.

Thinking of becoming a professional landscape/nature  photographer? Think again, Gomer!

Forget professional landscape photography, an industry DESTROYED by Marc Adamus & his cronies.

 In these tough economic times, many are wondering what their next step will be in the search for a career, or a job to pay the bills. Times are desperate. I understand, truly. 

 You may have seen the online advertisements for art schools, especially the ever-present Brookings Institute ones. They use bullshit phrases like “follow your passion”, with a picture of a backwards-baseball hat wearing loser and a tripod/camera in a field, to describe one ad.
 Don’t even think about it! While many college degrees offer at least a chance of career advancement or a better job somewhere down the line, these photography degrees are worst than a waste of money. They’ll leave you deeply in debt, for nothing.

 In fact, even trying professional photography without a degree is a losing venture. Don’t believe us? Take a look at Flickr, for one. That’s thousands of losers you see, just itching to be published and have their “abilities” acknowledged publicly. Forget getting paid to be published; these losers will pay others to have “their” images published. You have no chance against these imbeciles! In fact, you have less than no chance, because these losers steal the compositions of real professionals, thieving hundreds of years of artistic experience, and throwing it away for pennies on Dreamstime (a de facto terrorist organization that wages economic terrorism against the USA). 

This is what Marc Adamus & Kevin Mcneal breeds: dozens of LOSERS who are desperate to be published.

See these losers? They’re all lined up, loser by loser, desperate for fame and fortune. They don’t care about being paid for these images. They will pay others for the glory of being published. You have no chance against these imbeciles!

 Look at the scum Miles Morgan. Earning mid to upper six-figures as a senior airline pilot for United Airlines just wasn’t enough for this ambitious artistic titan. No, he had to chase that elusive fifty cents an image that microstock offered. And so he did. This so-called pillar of the community was, in fact, waging a jihad against an all-American industry, all to satisfy his selfish, personal lusts for recognition and fame. He even exactly copied images Marc Adamus had taken, which Marc had no doubt hoped to license for hundreds of dollars, only Miles was offering them for cents. I wonder if Miles Morgan had any photographers living on his block. Photographers who would greet him and smile at him, without knowing that Miles was stabbing them in the back and undermining their work. Without knowing that his desire for vain recognition had no limits, even to the point of helping to destroy jobs and committing what can only be frankly described as acts of economic terrorism. What else would you call someone who steals something you made, and then tries to sell it for pennies on the dollar, only in this case it’s for vanity, not to pay the bills?

 Why am I telling you this story? Only to explain how the odds are completely stacked against you as a potential professional photographer. There is no hope, none, of employment in this field, at this time. Even if you are extremely good and manage to market yourself to the right audience, envious scum like Miles Morgan (and thousands of others on Flickr/photo.net/npn) will copy your work (ie, steal), and give it away for pennies. The photography industry is in rapid decline, and the unfortunate truth is that it may have to be completely destroyed, flushing out all the Miles Morgans/Darren Whites/Marc Adamus’, before it can be reborn and provide the jobs it once gave to decent Americans.


 Don’t make the mistake of investing thousands of dollars and hours of your time into a hopeless field. The scum that are currently ravaging this industry, the Adrian Kleins, Kevin Mcneals, Jim Pattersons, Steve Sierens, they just don’t care. Their personal quest for fame and money is far more important than anyone’s career, life, happiness, or anything else in this world. Don’t get caught up in this rat race. Don’t be another person stuck selling “workshops” or “photo tours” to pay the $6000 minimum bill for the photographic equipment you’ll purchase. Read more about that here.
 You are probably reading this blog post because you happened across it while searching Google on prospects in the photography industry. 

Don’t be another statistic, saddled with tens of thousands in debt from a photography school, or thousands in debt for equipment you can’t use to create enough revenue to buy a soda pop, thanks to the SCUM, THUGS, and fame-seeking MORONS out there.

About that Steve Sieren “Visualization Before a Trip Into the Mountains” blog post: turns out it’s more “post-visualization” and not “pre-visualization”.

Steve Sieren, the LIAR and FRAUD



Steve Sieren is a LIAR, a LOSER, and a general piece of shit. Why do we say that?  It’s OK to mess around with photography and try to sell some stuff, and even become pro if you’re good, but Stevie really makes his money selling bullshit workshops & photo tours. Workshops/photo tours are a scam that is bleeding the photography world dry. Fat old losers, or skinny losers (Miles Morgan) jerk off to Flickr “comments & critiques and think that buying a “workshop” or “photo tour” from LIARS like Steve Sieren will let them tap into that treasure trove of comments & critiques. 

 However, once they’ve put $6000 into their 5d mark II and lenses, they always desire to “sell” some photography to justify their insane expenditures. It doesn’t mean they need to make $4000 a month from photography. 25 cents an image will do just fine (Travis Manley, anyone?). And that’s where the damage comes from. Bear in mind that scumbag Miles Morgan, who tried to sell images taken with his $6000 of equipment for pennies on microstock, got his start in comment/critique addiction by taking a NW Photo Tours workshop, run by those fine scammers Adrian Klein and Kevin Mcneal, two of the biggest pieces of shit you’ll ever run across. You know, the sort that act friendly and smile at your face while stabbing you in your back with a graduated, neutral density dagger. 

 So anyway, Steve Sieren knows that selling workshops is his real bread & butter, so he busily creates lies and myths to help him look like a Really Big Thing in the photography world. One of those things is being a filthy shill for Nik software. Another, which we will talk about here, is writing this bullshit “Visualization Before a Trip Into the Mountains” blog post. Here is the image that he supposedly created, to give God a clue as to What Steve Expected when he rushed out to the Wilderness:

The Steve Sieren Pre-Visualization, or what you're supposed to believe is a pre-visualization.

 
 Apart from resizing it to better fit this blog, it is unedited. Anyway, the idea here was that Steve sketched all this out before he went somewhere, to either imply clairvoyance, scientific flexibility, or possibly both. But he didn’t really sketch it all at home. It turns out that a lot of the text and sketch was added in Photoshop. Nothing about these turds surprises us anymore, but Stevie should have really been an honest loser and admitted that he messed with the sketch after his “vision” didn’t come to fruition when he went there. 

 What really happened is that he sketched about 70% (pardon the pun) of it at home, thinking it would turn out Exactly As Steve Foresaw, but when he rushed out there, heaven forbid! God didn’t listen to Stevie’s witchcraft and give Him the light He desired. So Stevie limped back home with his boring images and added plan “A” after the fact. Usually, plan A comes first, but in Steve Sieren’s world, it is added when Plan “B” doesn’t work out.Take a look: 

A closer, zoomed-in look at Steve Sieren's "vision"

Another look at the section in question.

And here’s all the fake stuff Steve added after he came back home:

Steve Sieren added the items in red after he came back from his trip. Click for larger version.

Since we understand that Steve has desires that he won’t share in a public venue, here’s a skillfully obtained copy of what Steve really wanted to write:

What Steve Sieren really thinks about "pre-visualization". Click for larger version.

Now there’s a plan! Honestly, we wouldn’t make this version public either, if we were Steve.