Backhanded compliments

My all time favorite is "Great picture; you must have a great camera", to which I usually reply, "I tend to think of it as the photographer behind the lens". How about you, what are your favorite backhanded compliments?

This is a big pet peeve of mine. I'm always tempted to reply with something like "If you saw a beautiful painting, would you suggest that the artist must have a great paintbrush!!??" But instead I usually just say thanks...

My all time favorite is "Great picture; you must have a great camera", to which I usually reply, "I tend to think of it as the photographer behind the lens". How about you, what are your favorite backhanded compliments?

(1) That's a great photograph, you must have been really lucky...

and

(2) That's a great photograph, you must have been on a really good dive...

and, at work: didn't Mr/Mrs X do well when she was being treated...

Tim

Yeah I get the "What camera did you use" pretty often. Or "gee, there sure are some nice fish where you went" - of course usually it's some rare nudi or something that took 3 days to find.

I have been working with the State on a dive map project using a bunch of my photos. I kept getting "make the critter shots smaller" from them in meetings - and these are Fish & Wildlife people, btw....Anyway she stopped by my booth at a recent show and swa how big and how expensive the equipment it took to take the photos and her eyes got big. Trying swimming with that in a current in a drysuit...

Jack

I've had the opposite happen. I was shooting for a client using a rangefinder Leica when I was asked rather suspiciously about whether it was a good camera (obviously it looked like a compact). All I had to do was quote the price and the fact that it was German made and I got a look of awe. Perceptions change. Needless to say the client was perfectly happy with the results.

My all time favorite is "Great picture; you must have a great camera", to which I usually reply, "I tend to think of it as the photographer behind the lens". How about you, what are your favorite backhanded compliments?

I have a good one.... Mine was from another local photographer after I got my first (only!!) big placement in a competition - a bronze in the recent OWU - I entered a few picstures in Novice only, since I haven't been shooting long. When I found out, I was so excited, I literally shrieked like a little girl! I was high as a kite, so ridiculously happy...and he said to me, "wow, congrats!! oh, but it was just novice, right??"

Talk about deflation. I didn't know what to say to that, so I kept my mouth shut.

My all time favorite is "Great picture; you must have a great camera", to which I usually reply, "I tend to think of it as the photographer behind the lens". How about you, what are your favorite backhanded compliments?

A number of years ago I was invited to a dinner party by a well known professional Chef and his wife, I brought with me two framed and matted underwater prints which had been published as a gift, the host remarked "these are excellent,you must own a good camera." The dinner was of course excellent, as I left I thanked the host's and added "The dinner was great,you must have some good pots."

This has been discussed before

This has been discussed before

 

 

I agree it's not always the camera but most of the time the person behind the lens!

www.thebigpicturelibrary.com/stevenanderson

The worst is when then say "you're lucky to have the life you have".

yea, of course, I was born with everything...seriously...

the Duck stuff is just perfect, I'm gonna try to use this strategy next time

I hate it when people promptly ask me how many megapixels followed by a "haha, mine has way more than 6!" or "ooh, really expensive camera then eh?" depending on whether it's my D70s or G10.

HI,

I have never been so lucky or is it unlucky, I just don't take good images

But I do get some which I think are quite good so im happy

Andy