Posers

As some of you are already aware, Google+ is shuttering in less than a month's time. As a result, millions of us are flocking to different corners of the internet trying to find a new home - somewhere with the same sense of community as the Plus but without all the immoral and unethical acts going on over at Facebook; all the ads at Facebook, Twitter and Instagram or the BS going on over at ... well, just about everywhere else.

So, I've been trying out different locations: MeWe, Cake.co, Disapora (in the form of Pluspora) and, most recently, YouMe.Social. Many of us still have high hopes for a project that hasn't been released yet called OpenBook.com, but for now, it's a hodgepodge of locations around the web.

They all have their plusses and minuses, but the largest detractor is none of them are the Plus.

Regardless, reviewing alternative social media sites isn't the intent of the blog post. The intent is to talk about photography.

I know, it's not something that's been on my mind recently as I've just not had the passion for it recently. I think a lot of it has to do with Rufus being dead and me not having passion for just about anything and winter ... where it's too darned cold to be out talking photos.

Regardless, on one of the social media sites I've been experimenting with, I've joined a few photography based groups hoping to ignite my passion once more but a funny thing happened instead: I discovered people are terrible photographers.

Now, don't get me wrong, there are good and even better than good photographers out there, but far too often people from across the internet are post photos that are ... let's say "lackluster" at best. They're there by the dozens posting photos with no distinct subject matter, out of focus, bland or even just plain boring images.

I'm not saying I'm a pro or even better than average, but when I take pictures and share them online I take that seriously. Those images are there to showcase my skill set and vision

And then there are the worst of the worst: people who share other's content as though it's their own. One of the photography groups I belong to is a theme of the day group. Sometimes the theme is vague, requiring some form of interpretation, and sometimes it's fairly specific, but every day there's a theme and every day there are some people who post photos that are clearly not their own. It's almost like they scour the internet for a photo to share.

How do we identify these posts? Simple:

• It is exceedingly rare that they post any form of introduction to their photo.

This isn't a qualifier at all for the sort of behavior I'm talking about as it seems a vast majority of people choose not to "introduce" the content they're sharing with the rest of the world. This can, and often does, include linkdumping wherein the poster just posts a link with no commentary to explain why anyone should care to click on the link in the first place. This seems to be extraordinarily common on photography communities where the so-called photographers don't explain the photo at all. No where, when, why - nothing. And it's annoying. And what's worse: asking the person making the post to say something about the photo they're posting as their own usually results in some form of attack.

• The photo appears "too good to be true".

Don't get me wrong, some photographers are great, but when most of their posts are of mediocre work and suddenly they have a beautiful image, it has to raise some red flags for anyone with common sense. Or, when a fairly famous image is posted.

Hey, bro, it's not yours so why are you sharing it like it is?

• The poster/"photographer" becomes defensive when you ask about it

This is more a a continuation of what I mentioned earlier. The image is too good to be true and so you start asking questions, "When were you there?", "What camera did you use?", "How did you edit this?". 

But then again, some people will just ignore you instead of responding. Once again, if you're sharing your own work and someone asks about it, most people are generally going to be happy to talk about the basics. But if you don't have any answers ...

Anywho, it's later than I thought and I have a few other things to do before I hit the hay so I'm going to leave this at that and just reiterate: just because you take pictures doesn't make you a photographer and posting pictures that aren't your own as your own (without attribution to the real photographer) is unethical at best which just makes you a jackass.