Digital BW, The Print

David,
We do live in a free market economy.  If you have the audience then you can establish the market.  If others are either as savvy or as talented and make the market more reasonable, then they have the power and either you change your paradigm, join the club, or gather your toys and go home.  Undermined has a negative connotation, and I'm reasonably sure that the 'amateurs' [look it up - really those who love the field as much or more than you], don't want to sully the profession, they may realize that they cannot command the exorbitant prices most 'pros' command and would rather sell a few images at their pricepoint instead of none at yours.
And, btw, NO photography 'sucks', just different eyes and brains process the information.  This thread just has an elitist viewpoint [and I must say that I can be in that category sometimes, as well].  
A.J. Berkson
Owner
Omages Fine Art
omages.com  

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, CDTobie <CDTobie@...> wrote:
>
> >>Some years ago an Art Buyer at a big time Ad Agency told me that we photographers had ruined the photography business by selling ourselves too cheap.
> 
> It's a slippery slope, where no single step causes the end result. But even if pros held their pricing, many categories (most notably travel, landscape, senior portraits, and photojournalism) would still have been undermined by enthusiastic amateurs, happy to provide images for little or nothing. 
> 
> C. David Tobie
> Global Product Technology Manager
> Imaging Color Solutions
> Datacolor inc. 
> cdtobie@...
> www.datacolor.com
> 
> On Feb 16, 2013, at 8:26 AM, Julian Kaiser <Jlkmmw@...> wrote:
> 
> > Some years ago an Art Buyer at a big time Ad Agency told me that we photographers had ruined the photography business by selling ourselves too cheap.
>