[Leica] photographer hierarchy and IQ ramblings

["Birkey, Duane" <dbirkey@hcjb.org.ec>]

My purpose was not to downgrade wedding or portrait photographers.  I shoot
several hundred portraits a year and try to limit the weddings to less than
1 a year...  It doesn't take too long until you run out of new ideas for
arranging people or lighting, though...  How many commercial portrait
"studios" have their lights bolted to the wall??  Realistically the biggest
challenge in portraiture is to get the expression...  the photography skills
are minimal, the people skills are far more important.

My underlying point was that a wedding or portrait  photographer does not
experience many of the things that I have experienced as a photographer.
And no doctor nor dentist I know has either.  One could say the same about
many within different professions....  But the truth is we are involved in
photography because we want to be..... Is any photographer on this list a
photographer because they got a low score on their SAT or ACT.  I had the
second highest math and science score in my high school.... (I got clobbered
on the verbal and grammar etc. side.  loved reading, but hated writing )  

I started out as an engineering major, I was bored stiff, went to computer
science and was really bored stiff..  (no offense to either of those
professions on this list) ended up with a degree in business but spent all
of my time doing photography. 

And while a high IQ can be good for certain careers, it is a poor measure of
ability and worth.  Where would the world be without plumbers, postmen,
teachers, janitors, truck drivers, assembly-line workers, steel workers....
etc...  you don't need a high "IQ" to do those jobs, but any one of them has
intelligence in skills and abilities about which my lawyer has no clue..  I
grew up on a farm.... farmers are not always well thought of...It doesn't
take a whole lot of brains to stick seed in the ground and "watch" it grow.
(no offense to farmers on this list) But we learned how to take anything and
everything apart, see what was wrong and fix it.  We also learned lots of
practical skills and practical ways of making and doing things that my
engineering friends have no clue about...  But then again engineers have
lots of abilities that make my eyes glaze over.

 And finally, my personal experience is that people with high IQ's,
engineers and doctors can be extremely stupid at times, especially once you
get them out of their very specific element and that shows within their
profession at times....  We've all seen poorly designed, engineered and
manufactured stuff that is just about worthless.  

Either way, If one has a high IQ and a high paying job in a developed
country, that's great.... but on a real level, that does not give one any
more value as a person than one who does not have either and lives in a
developing country.. 

Duane (rambling again) Birkey