For me it's not so much about the message he's giving, but the manner in which he's giving it. His manner is doing him no favours and leaves me with an unflatering opinion about the gentleman, that maybe undeserved, but it is how he comes across to me.
Ah well, I guess not everyone is going to get it.
To somewhat broaden the discussion I do think it's more difficult for newcomers to photography
The point here is that the masses aren't newcomers to photography in the way that enthusiast photographers expect them to be. They really don't care about photography in the same way that enthusiasts do.
Many years ago I used to know a man in his 50s who, after a lifetime of working as a labourer in construction sites, he decided he really wanted to do something different with the rest of his life. He had an immense love for jazz and he played the saxophone very well. So he decided to study music at college to improve his skill on the sax and then after that he went to university of complete a bachelors degree in education. His dream was to be a music teacher at a school and spend the rest of his years instilling his love for jazz to upcoming generations.
I lost touch with him for about 15 years.
When I finally got back in contact with him, he was a broken man. He managed to complete his bachelors in education/teaching and he landed his dream job as a music teacher at a high school. But the kids fought and ridiculed him every step of the way, they refused to accept jazz as the complex and infinitely fascinating art that it deserved to be, and instead only cared about rap and dance music or whoever is the latest artificially manufactured boy band in the Top 50 charts. I remember our phone conversation, he was a broken man.
I'm not a teacher and I'm not an expert in education but if I was a music teacher in school, I suppose I would have zeroed in on rap and dance music at first instance. For example, challenge the kids in an engaging discussion about the history of rap, the social struggles, the gang-related associations and why rap music became connected with this aspect of urban life in NY and California, challenge them to explain the technicality of rap music itself, what equipment are being used, what sounds, why, where do you draw the line between the good stuff and the cheesy attempts. For the smartasses in class, I'd challenge them to do better than some of the cheesier garbage that is out there.
Stu's blog post is about reaching out and connecting with the kids at first instance about what they want to know '
now' without jumping headfirst and blind into the finer aspects of photography as an art form that it deserves to be. I have made the mistake of not making that connection first and when I've launched into a schpiel about apertures, sensor sizes, shutter speeds, ISOs, the latest amazing mirrorless cameras..... sometimes I have had the self-awareness to stop myself when I start to notice their eyes glaze over with extreme boredom.