I am always amazed how many people know exactly what’s good for you and exactly how you should be taking your photos.

I mean, they come over and tell you that you’re doing it all wrong, insinuate that you have no idea what you’re doing and proceed to spew bits of advice that they read in the magazines in the Doctor’s waiting room or overheard in conversations while hanging around a photo-counter.

All the while, if they even have a camera, it’s never been taken out of “Auto” mode the entire time they’ve owned it.

So, who do you listen to?

Beyond the fundamentals of photography, which one should know, look at their pictures, or better look at their portfolios. Do they have photos (not just pictures) to back up what they’re saying? Does what they’re shooting push the envelope or challenge them to come up with good solutions, or are they always shooting “sunny 16″ pictures?

Do they know what to do in a challenging photo-situation like back-light, high-contrast or poorly lit scenes?

Does that guy behind the photo-counter really think that Praktica camera is so much better than, say that Nikon D-300 or is he just getting a bigger “manufacturers-incentive” by selling you that outmoded camera?

Ask the “expert” questions you already know the answers to, see if what they say correlates to what you know or are they full of crap, and, if so, it’s time to find another salesperson.

Read up on the camera you’re interested in on the Manufacturer’s web-site before you go looking. Check out all the opinions of it on some of the better discussion groups (like Nikonians etc), and compare statements against each other to help you try to quantify and validate your asessments. Meanwhile keeping in mind that much of these are just that, opinions, and thus are subjective to the person stating it.

If the person you are talking to about equipment or improving your shots turns out to be the real-thing, latch on to them and learn all you can, or buy all your gear from them.

I’ve had salespeople I so trusted (like Christy over at Calumet in L.A.) I’ve even taken them to lunch to give back a little of what I get from them. They are a rare and treasured commodity in this era of posers and bullshitters.

So, before you buy some expensive equipment from that person who one week is pushing Kodak and the next week pushing Fuji, or that “expert-photographer” who has photographs that could only appear in the bottom of a bird cage, learn all you can about what interests you. It’ll make it easier to learn more and to separate the signals from the noise.

Remember, it was the “experts” that steadfastly insisted that radio was dead, film was dead, the home-pricing bubble would never burst and the world was flat.