Its sad because, much like a lot of things, the true professional is being pushed out of the business.
This is true in my field, stock stuff, fine art photos, and probably most of all weddings.
I had tens of thousands of dollars worth of equipment. And between the equipment and my 30 years of experience you could SEE the difference. I had the light, the angle, and the knowledge of the sport to make the shot better.
But it is a value proposition. And my prices were relatively cheap compared to many others.
My images are going to be posted on walls for generations. The snapshot, crappy digital photos have already been forgotten.
Go figure.
I would bet a lot of people never even look at their billions of digital shots again.
Sure, there’s the Instagram folks or people who process them in various ways, but the great majority of people holding their cameras up at mass are probably never going to look at them, show them to anyone or do anything but store them in the cloud until they need to delete them to make room for more.
What people are looking for is something immediate.
I think if professional photographs could be obtained on the spot - that is, sent immediately after the event to the buyer’s email or phone - that would make them more attractive. And, of course, if churches started telling people not to take photos during the mass, it would make it the only option!