It’s common…it means they’re shopping around and getting pricing from different photographers and they decided not to go with you. Nobody owes you anything until you’ve got an agreement/contract.

The problem i have is with your choice of the word “should”. Should implies there’s a right way to do something. There is no right way to do photography. It’s an art. You’re free to do it any way you like. No one will say using Lightroom is the best or only way to edit photos.

Now do I recommend Lightroom? Yeah I do, and I’d recommend it to anyone getting started in photography. It’s a great tool that allows for lots of creative editing and produces high quality results. Most other editing software can do the same job.

Lightroom runs best on a full fledged computer. Can you use an iPad? Yeah but the mobile version of the app isn’t the same as on a PC/Mac. I’m not sure if there are any limitations or disadvantages since I don’t own an iPad.

What do you mean put them to use?

In terms of file organization I just put everything into folders. I typically have two levels. First level is a broad categorization like Trips, Family, Friends, Events, etc. the subfolders inside are then more specific related to the events followed by a year date. So for example Anniversary 2023, Graduation 2010. I do it this way because when I wanna find stuff, I usually remember what it was, not the year I took it. That’s why I don’t do the date first.

I’ve digitized many old film negatives too and those I do differently. Because they’re my dad’s photos, and each roll had a mix of different subjects and locations, I just did one folder per roll since I process them all together. For those I do date first, followed by several key words for the different subject matter.

You could organize these in a Lightroom catalog and tag photos but I don’t want to tie myself to any particular company or software. I would also not solely rely on cloud backups since Google has corrupted and lost my images before. I do use it but just for casual phone photos.

I gotta always ask in this sort of complaint, where’s the evidence?

I’ve generally found photography communities to be nice people.

Yeah I get em too. I don’t think it’s a scam necessarily, sometimes they’re just doing marketing. Of course the moment you have to pay anything, it’s a scam.

1. People posting a photo online and just asking, “Do you like it?” “What do you think?” “How can I improve this shot”

Usually it’s beginners that do this and the reality is their photos are usually boring or dull, and it’s a travel snapshot of just some generic thing on the street. I’m just at a loss for these sort of questions and posts because the photographers don’t explain what their intent is behind the shot. What is it that caught your eye? What are you trying to show, cause I don’t see anything special. How do you improve your shot? Do they want me to tell them how to take the photograph at a location I wasn’t at? How can someone else tell you how to photograph something better in an uncontrolled environment?

2. I can’t stand most vintage/film filters and presets. They’re fine for stylizing your shot if you’re doing a portrait session, or maybe you want a similar look for your wedding album. Fine, I get that. But instagram has imposed this idea you have to have a consistent look across all your images in your portfolio and it drives me nuts. Nothing bores me more than seeing a hundred photos that look exactly the same.

I still have an interest in looking at watches, but buying watches? In this market? lol, no thanks. It doesn’t cost $10,000 to make a Rolex guys. You’re just buying the brand, and I got better things to buy than a status symbol.