FYI (and don’t get me started on emojis)

The overuse of abbreviations and acronyms by photographers SUX. Therefore, at the risk of being totally absent of SEO keywords, I share with you today what’s wrong, IMHO, with the verbal shortcuts photographers abuse.

The first draft of this article originally appeared 15 years ago in Photo Industry Reporter (PIR) which later became Digital Imaging Reporter (DIR). IDK, does that make me an OG? I had to edit a few lines and refresh the venom, but some things just never change. LMAO.

Figuratively Speaking, a Sidebar
Or call it going off on a tangent, if you’d rather. I’m not afraid to use an idiom here and there, rather than beat around the bush. After all, second only to clichés, idioms make the world go around, if you follow my drift, even if they are a dime a dozen.

I’m willing to use old chestnuts, after a fashion, because they sometimes help you get the picture faster than a jack rabbit, in the same way that certain well chosen expletives do, for instance, the profanity that you’re doubtlessly bleeping under your breath at this very moment. I can’t hear it, and that’s good because ignorance is bliss, and what I don’t know won’t hurt me, to coin a phrase. Stick and stones may break my bones, but that’s neither here nor there. And all’s well that ends well.

On to the Villains, AKA Limp Verbal Shortcuts
The one literary element I’ll rarely be found using is the abbreviation. Texting is to blame, of course, for their rise and adulteration. Abbreviations are a lazy form of verbal shorthand that allows texters to communicate, primarily with two thumbs, without any creativity, originality or imagination. I hate them because they’re confusing and add nothing to our language, but most of all because they are hard to capitalize.

Acronyms are not much better. If you don’t know the technical difference between the two, here it is: the letters in an acronym create a pronounceable word, like RADAR or MADD, whereas the letters in an abbreviation are just a bunch of letters and are articulated individually, like ISO or DUI. With this new knowledge, please begin correcting random strangers in the name of good grammar.

One reason I hate this BS is that the unschooled often try to pronounce the unpronounceable, like DOT (Department of Transportation), DOF (Depth of Field) or APS (what was that one again?) and it sounds ridiculous. Try to pronounce “DMV” with a straight face and without SLRing.

Photographers are the Worst Language Manglers
Sadly, the photographic industry is replete with abbreviations, from AE to WB and from CES right through to WPPI. I believe that, collectively, they cause AC (Avoidable Confusion) for most consumers, including those who are DC (Digitally Competent). LMK if you agree.

Years ago we had a perfectly good set of names for camera exposure modes, including Aperture Priority and Shutter Priority. Then along came Canon around (1979 or so) with the labels Av and Tv which mean Audio Video and Television—I mean Aperture Value and Time Value. And when they introduced the Canon AE-1 Program, they put P on the exposure dial. And therein lies my point: abbreviations sometimes do not migrate across platforms very well.

Do you have a UPS—Uninterruptible Power Supply—or use United Parcel Service? Does HR mean Home Run or Human Resources? And while we’re talking baseball, does SB mean Stolen Base or the same as SOB? BTW, don’t get me started again on the bevy of obscure abbreviations spawned by TM (Text Messaging, Trademarks or Transcendental Meditation, depending on your POV).

In retaliation against a world that insists that it’s better to spit out staccato letters than to fully pronounce names of things, I am using SB as a Bully Pulpit and proposing the following new abbreviations. And yes, all of these can be applied under the guidelines found in the ITSF (If The Shoe Fits) rulebook.

lbs
I love this one because it’s nearly always written in small letters, like its lightweight brother “oz” and European cousin “cc.” What makes it better is that the letter “l” is so easily confused with the number “1.”  In fact, I like this one so much I think I’ll just leave it alone.

Well, almost. Camera makers, please realize that specifying the weight of a camera without including the weight of the battery is misleading and downright ignorant. LBS, then, by my new definition, means List Battery Specifications.

DPF
Dreaded Purple Fringe. Commonly misinterpreted as CA (Chromatic Aberration, not California), DPF is caused by camera manufacturers who try to put ten pounds of MP into a five pound camera. The result makes the edge between the clipped highlights and blocked shadows glow like a black light in a 1970’s college dorm room (yes, I’m speaking from experience here, on all counts, BTW).

DSC
Damn Small Camera. Scores of marketing managers refer to them as Digital Still Cameras so as to differentiate between them and their camcorder cousins. For statistical reporting purposes, that’s fine—but have you ever tried to use one of those ultra-thin, all-LCD point-and-shoots with adult human hands? Where do you put your fingers? I saw one that said “TGIF” (Thumb Goes In Front) on the lens barrel. [This example has not aged well over the intervening 15 years. DSCs are all but gone. Instead, we deal with a Damn Big Smartphones. The images are not as good, but you can renew the extended warranty on your car or resolve IRS problems simply by answering the call and pressing 1. – Ed.]

IBIS
Is this reference to in-body image stabilization an acronym? I mean, if you say it out loud it sounds like amateur night at an Audubon meeting, or perhaps the name of the youngest cousin in Deliverance. In reality, however, it stands for I Believe I Shake. Why else you anyone need IBIS?

PC
Politically Correct to say this could mean Personal Computer or even Probable Cause if you are in law enforcement (or perhaps a felon), the original meaning of these two disparate letters of the photographer’s alphabet stood for Prontor-Compur, a type of leaf shutter formerly deployed in view camera lenses. The term also identified the flash synchronization specifications for those shutters, as well as a physical interface called the PC connection, or PC terminal.

ISO
This one stands out because it’s totally deranged. In the beginning there was ASA, the abbreviation for the American Standards Association. It was used in conjunction with a numeric value to identify the sensitivity of photographic film. ASA 25 (Kodachrome II for example) was “slow” while ASA 400 (Tri-X Pan) was more sensitive and labeled “fast.” High Speed Ektachrome, ASA 160, fell somewhere in between, as did ASA 125 Kodak Plus-X.

In parts of the Europe, the numbers followed a similar scheme but they used the abbreviation DIN which denotes Deutsches Institut für Normung e.V. (German Institute for Standardization). Understandable, ja?

But then along came digital cameras and they just had to upset the analog apple cart. Instead of trusty ASA or DIN, the DSCs opted for ISO. LMAO, right? Now, one might suspect that ISO could perhaps stand for International Standards Organization, but nooooo—that would be way too simple. Instead, ISO represents International Organization for Standardization. I cannot guess why they didn’t use IOS instead of ISO, but perhaps they had ESP about Apple.

TTL
If you’re guessing TTL stands for Through The Lens, your guesser is as busted as my Weston Photronic Exposure Meter Model 617. Nowadays, TTL is my nickname for TikTok Language. Tell me if I’m wrong, but I have to look at TikToks with captions turned ON just to follow the dialog, SMH. I mean, WTF?

And while we’re trashing social media, how did our beautiful-but-mongrel language slip from “I am going to,” to “I’m going to,” to “I’m gonna,” to the now omnipresent “Imma.” I know the last line is missing a question mark; I skipped it on purpose, LOL, just to test you.

And I bet you don’t know how to use a semicolon, smarty-pants. No, semicolon is not a suburb of the Panamanian city located on the Manzanillo Peninsula, Mr. Geography Major. (We won’t go anywhere near the possible definitions medical students—especially surgeons—might consider.)

DPI
Now this abbreviation could be pronounced dippy but it’s anything but. It’s a specification that requires a tad of math knowledge to comprehend. It stands for Dots Per Inch, a defining characteristic of DMP (Dot Matrix Printers). This spec found new life in the universe of IJPs (Ink Jet Printers). Not to be confused with IGP, a phrase you can decipher on your own (the middle word is gotta) that is uttered, often painfully, by someone who drank too much iced tea and asks you to stop the car at the next gas station, 7-Eleven or wooded area.

PIA
True story, a PR assistant who worked for a major camera manufacturer referred to Yours Truly as a PIA in an internal e-mail she accidentally sent to me. PIA isn’t the name of an Italian actress; it actually means Pain in the A-region, but I played dumb because a) I know that I am perceived as a PIA at times (although I prefer to think of it as being persistent), and b) nobody’s perfect. Well, maybe there’s a perfect PIA out there somewhere. Yeah, come to think of it, I do know a couple of them.

GPS
Go Photograph Something. Let this be your daily mantra. Even if, like me, you’ve Gotten Progressively Slower.

Conclusion
Want to fight back? Join AAAAAA, the Americans Against All Abbreviations And Acronyms used by photographers. Membership costs only $59.00 (LTO) plus $1 for a link to the secret URL. Put cash in a greasy shoebox and mail it to me at 6A HQ, POB 14, NY, NY 10022. Partial scholarships available for the grammatically impaired with proof of analphabetism.

For Canadians only, the cost is $90 and the name of the organization is “Eh?”

That’s all from me for now, I’m ZZZ. I have to post this love letter by EOD. I know I should throw in a few keywords and maybe a couple octothorpes (#LookItUp). Oh, the sins we commit for SEO.

If you have some favorite abbreviations of your own, please share them with me ASAP. Just don’t get me started on emojis or I’ll be really POed.

PS
I say this too often, but it’s worth repeating. If you want to be a better photographer, take more pictures. Carry a camera everywhere you go and shoot even when you’re 100% sure the picture won’t turn out. Review all of your images with a critical eye and share them with others.

About the Author
Jon Sienkiewicz was a longtime member of PMA, PMDA, CES and some other alphabet segments, but now is too old to remember what most of the letters stood for. [And yes, OMG, he can be a colossal PIA. – Ed.]

—Jon Sienkiewicz