24th February 2010, 01:29 PM
There are some valid concerns about the expected level of competance in photography (and other skills). It's fine if you are working in similar areas all the time (say large area excavations), but in some cases that simply isn't the case. In any given week my workload is so varying that it is virtually impossible to be an expert in everything - a list of necessary skills, for example: photography, site drawing, survey, excavation, building recording, finds (at least basic identification), and software ranging from Word to CAD. In the past I have had to use GPS, sometimes having not used it for over 6 months. So, do I consider myself an expert in any of these things? Of course not, I would have to be even more of a genius than I currently am. What with the current state of archaeology opportunity for proper training is virtually nill. So get professional help if you can, but being a jack of all trades and master of none is sometimes the only choice.