There as another running thread on this kind of etymology- it attracted many posts but I decided not to participate in that one. I'll play with this one.

So- I am a professional photographer- been at it for over 50 years. I only mention this because when I started out in the business back in Brooklyn, New York, there was a photo-slang or jargon mostly used by pro-photographers among their colleagues and cohorts. My first job was in a portrait and wedding studio. The lexicon was "plain talk" and some specialized slang terms. We called our products PICTURES- wedding pictures, or PORTRAITS- everyone including the customers could understand those terms. Wedding pictures were also called "CANDIDS". PROOFS and CONTACTS were the unfinished and unretouched pictures used for the customers to make their selections. As a rookie, I started off as an assistant called a "LIGHTMAN" which was the first step in training to be a "CANDID MAN" there were "PORTRAIT MEN" and DARKROOM MEN"- Simple stuff- everybody got it! Oh, LIGHTMEN or LIGHT LADIES and now LIHTHTIG TECHNICIANS! A promotion of title or rank without promotion of paygrade! A PRINTER was a skilled darkroom operator, now it's a machine that also scanners and does faxes!

Why keep things simple when they can be complex or "fancy". SO..."Pictures" became low-class- they are PHOTOGRAPHS! We don't TAKE PICTURES we PHOTOGRAPH people and we certainly don't SHOOT them. " Wedding Candids" became "CASUALS" as opposed to "FORMALS" but "FORMALS" are too stiff so they became "ROMANTIC CASUALS" and"PRECIOUS MEMORIES"! Then all of that became too mushy so now it's all PHOTOJOURNALISM, just like wars, traffic accidents, riots, and football games!

No more PORTRAITS? Head and shoulders and closeup portraits are no called HEADSHOTS- borrowed from modeling and theatrical agency jargon. We no longer do "BUSINESS PORTRAITS" that became "CORPORATE PORTRAITURE". No more "PUBLICITY PORTRAITS for actors or "GLOSSIES"- you get a CD, A STICK" or an Email!

An itinerant baby photographer who works kinda door-to-door in the cleits' homes were called "KIDNAPPERS"(very low-class) now the are environmental child specialists.

The salesperson who showed folks their proofs and pressured them into buying more and bigger pictures were called "PROFF-PASSERS" Now the are "PHOTOGRAPHIC CONSULTANTS". No more PROOFS- the became "PREVIEWS" and finally (give me a break) "DEBUTE IMAGES". Now they are "THUMBNAILS"- why not TOENAILS!

BANNED WORDS: CLASSIFIED AS VULGAR: Snapshot, snaps, developing (became processing), "SNAPPING PICTURES" is pure blasphemy!

Speaking of THUMBNAILS, enter the digital era of photography and most of the aforementioned has been flushed away! Much of the current photography buzzwords are stolen form the motion picture production industry. The DARKROOM is dead along with all those darkroom men and women! No more developing, retouching, and printing- it's all POST- PRODUCTION, and POST-PROCESSING and EDITING.

It was more fun in the good old days. The developer solution was called SOUP! We work SOUP the film, and soup the prints. Fixer was called HYPO! We were asked to PULL PROOFS OR PULL A PRINT!

I'll never forget the time when a new photographer was hired by my first boss. A lady came in to inquire about having here child photographed. The new guy said, "we'll shoot your kid, grab lotas poses, soup he film, pull some proofs, the proof-passer will show them to ya, and we'll retouch the diaper rash and pull some fine prints- if you like we can color them in"! The boss fired him!

I guess the terms IMAGES is differentiated from PHOTOGRAPHS so that the purists can separate REAL UNADULTERATED PHOTOGRAPHS from GOD FORBID, electronically/digitally processed or manipulated photographs! Then everyone can sit around and argue that all photographs are digitally processed within the internal circuitry of the camera- wasting time instead of going out and shootin' some good PICTURES!

Used to be we asked clients to put down a deposit to secure our services for an event or when placing an order for prints. Nowadsat some "photographers" call that an "INVESTMENT"- the ain't buying a share of your business!

As I stated earlier, I like STRAIGHT TALK as much as I HATE USELESS EUPHISIAMS, hyperbole, and language based on snobbism.

Funny story: Last year I received an assignment for the National Art Museum here in my city- to precisely photograph a traveling collection of masterpiece paintings some of with were extremely rare and priceless oil paintings by some of the Dutch and Flemish Masters along with some contemporary works. High security and all that. I was warmly greeted by the curator who introduced himself and said "Let's go int the exhibition hall and I'll show you the PICTURE I need you to shoot"! PICTURES!!!

I hope this helps answer your question!

I'm a photographer and I make pictures and as Rodney Dangerfield used to say, "call me and my pictures whatever you want- just don't call me late for dinner"!

Oh- Back in Brooklyn, my elocution was rather poor- kinda like Sly Stallone in Rockey I- I dropped my "Rs" so I called the pictures "-Pitchez" I have improved slightly since,

There as another running thread on this kind of etymology- it attracted many posts but I decided not to participate in that one. I'll play with this one.

So- I am a professional photographer- been at it for over 50 years. I only mention this because when I started out in the business back in Brooklyn, New York, there was a photo-slang or jargon mostly used by pro-photographers among their colleagues and cohorts. My first job was in a portrait and wedding studio. The lexicon was "plain talk" and some specialized slang terms. We called our products PICTURES- wedding pictures, or PORTRAITS- everyone including the customers could understand those terms. Wedding pictures were also called "CANDIDS". PROOFS and CONTACTS were the unfinished and unretouched pictures used for the customers to make their selections. As a rookie, I started off as an assistant called a "LIGHTMAN" which was the first step in training to be a "CANDID MAN" there were "PORTRAIT MEN" and DARKROOM MEN"- Simple stuff- everybody got it! Oh, LIGHTMEN or LIGHT LADIES and now LIHTHTIG TECHNICIANS! A promotion of title or rank without promotion of paygrade! A PRINTER was a skilled darkroom operator, now it's a machine that also scanners and does faxes!

Why keep things simple when they can be complex or "fancy". SO..."Pictures" became low-class- they are PHOTOGRAPHS! We don't TAKE PICTURES we PHOTOGRAPH people and we certainly don't SHOOT them. " Wedding Candids" became "CASUALS" as opposed to "FORMALS" but "FORMALS" are too stiff so they became "ROMANTIC CASUALS" and"PRECIOUS MEMORIES"! Then all of that became too mushy so now it's all PHOTOJOURNALISM, just like wars, traffic accidents, riots, and football games!

No more PORTRAITS? Head and shoulders and closeup portraits are no called HEADSHOTS- borrowed from modeling and theatrical agency jargon. We no longer do "BUSINESS PORTRAITS" that became "CORPORATE PORTRAITURE". No more "PUBLICITY PORTRAITS for actors or "GLOSSIES"- you get a CD, A STICK" or an Email!

An itinerant baby photographer who works kinda door-to-door in the cleits' homes were called "KIDNAPPERS"(very low-class) now the are environmental child specialists.

The salesperson who showed folks their proofs and pressured them into buying more and bigger pictures were called "PROFF-PASSERS" Now the are "PHOTOGRAPHIC CONSULTANTS". No more PROOFS- the became "PREVIEWS" and finally (give me a break) "DEBUTE IMAGES". Now they are "THUMBNAILS"- why not TOENAILS!

BANNED WORDS: CLASSIFIED AS VULGAR: Snapshot, snaps, developing (became processing), "SNAPPING PICTURES" is pure blasphemy!

Speaking of THUMBNAILS, enter the digital era of photography and most of the aforementioned has been flushed away! Much of the current photography buzzwords are stolen form the motion picture production industry. The DARKROOM is dead along with all those darkroom men and women! No more developing, retouching, and printing- it's all POST- PRODUCTION, and POST-PROCESSING and EDITING.

It was more fun in the good old days. The developer solution was called SOUP! We work SOUP the film, and soup the prints. Fixer was called HYPO! We were asked to PULL PROOFS OR PULL A PRINT!

I'll never forget the time when a new photographer was hired by my first boss. A lady came in to inquire about having here child photographed. The new guy said, "we'll shoot your kid, grab lotas poses, soup he film, pull some proofs, the proof-passer will show them to ya, and we'll retouch the diaper rash and pull some fine prints- if you like we can color them in"! The boss fired him!

I guess the terms IMAGES is differentiated from PHOTOGRAPHS so that the purists can separate REAL UNADULTERATED PHOTOGRAPHS from GOD FORBID, electronically/digitally processed or manipulated photographs! Then everyone can sit around and argue that all photographs are digitally processed within the internal circuitry of the camera- wasting time instead of going out and shootin' some good PICTURES!

Used to be we asked clients to put down a deposit to secure our services for an event or when placing an order for prints. Nowadsat some "photographers" call that an "INVESTMENT"- the ain't buying a share of your business!

As I stated earlier, I like STRAIGHT TALK as much as I HATE USELESS EUPHISIAMS, hyperbole, and language based on snobbism.

Funny story: Last year I received an assignment for the National Art Museum here in my city- to precisely photograph a traveling collection of masterpiece paintings some of with were extremely rare and priceless oil paintings by some of the Dutch and Flemish Masters along with some contemporary works. High security and all that. I was warmly greeted by the curator who introduced himself and said "Let's go int the exhibition hall and I'll show you the PICTURE I need you to shoot"! PICTURES!!!

I hope this helps answer your question!

I'm a photographer and I make pictures and as Rodney Dangerfield used to say, "call me and my pictures whatever you want- just don't call me late for dinner"!

Oh- Back in Brooklyn, my elocution was rather poor- kinda like Sly Stallone in Rockey I- I dropped my "Rs" so I called the pictures "-Pitchez" I have improved slightly since,