Wedding photogs expensive? Have you seen other professions eroded by hacks?

In article
,
RichA wrote:

There is a complaint in the trade's industry in Toronto that Third
Worlder's with no apparent training or skill are vastly underpricing
jobs, eroding wages in the industries (mostly contractors) and hurting
the industry's overall image by doing sub-par work.

I've been asked numerous times by people to shoot weddings or
portraits and I'll never do it. I'm not a pro photog and I can't ask
the prices they would so I won't degrade their profession's reputation
by doing a job I have no training or major experience doing. It's not
as dire a someone without a medical license practicing medicine, but
the results to the particular profession are just as bad, maybe
worse.

I've been doing photography in various forms for over 45 years - 16+
operating my own portrait studio. I estimate that I've photographed
600-700 weddings which isn't much compared to some in the biz. But it's
still a lot.

What passes these days for professional photography is mostly crap. I
hate the crooked horizons and washed out trendy junk. Nobody learns
about light and shadow, musculature, posing, etc.

And with digital, the craftsmanship is gone. Today, all you have to do
is press a button, and you'll probably get something well-exposed and
in focus. You don't have to spend time in a darkroom sloshing around
chemicals...using the right combination of film, paper, and chemistry.

I'm glad I got out of it when I did.