After re-reading this entire thread, I conclude that this is a litany of opinions from a wide variety of people of differing photographic backgrounds, abilities, experience and education. Each of us has our own thoughts and preferences when viewing photographs, or other art media, and we express our personal opinions regarding that art. What I find interesting, good, great, poor, or downright terible, will not coincide with what another Hedgehogger thinks.

So to me this is all a lot of disagreement with everyone wanting to say, "I'm right and you are wrong." When in reality we are all saying, "This is what I think. You can agree or disagree."

If I make a comment about post, I am expressing my ideas, thoughts and feeling about that particular post and I don't give a rat's patootie about someone else's comment on that post. I will at times give, what I believe to be constructive criticism to the OP. It in no way is meant to be discouraging or mean spirited, I am expressing my thoughts and ideas about the subject. My and only my thoughts. I wrote it before, I am not perfect, I do not profess to be perfect, nor do I profess to be an expert in photography. I simply know what I like and dislike and will state that in a way that hopefully does not offend the person to whom it is directed.

I think this is what we all are trying to do. At least I hope it is.

I belong to a camera club and it is more a computer image manipulating CLUB. Take your picture that is barely acceptable, and manipulate it to be “impressive”. And we have 7 separate categories of photos. We have not as yet defined the parameters to accurately DEFINE each type. Soooo Then we argue about WHAT qualifies for “nature” —“Landscape” What makes a “Portrait”. And what qualifies as a Manipulated image. Arguments are frequent as to what is “?genuinely?” MANIPULATED,, etc....Then we wonder WHY we cant get new people that come in ,out of curiosity, to come back.....I say that we all should be encouraging and do what photo clubs should do....Bring in and SHOW our pictures, its the pictures and cameras we should focus on(no PUN) and not how much you can manipulate a mediocre capture. Taking poor pictures and then changing them to something ACCEPTABLE should be a “COMPUTER CLUB””.. On the Hogg, i have always been impressed that most reactions to images submitted, have been out of a hope to help. Why would we want to be”EXTREMELY CRITICAL of images submitted. When someone new comes to our club we Should get up and dance around them, and ask what they hope to gleen from what WE have to offer, But we should well define “What we intend to be.; A computer lmage manipulating group, OR a photo-camera image club. When you aren’t sure of what is your purpose, you cant RETAIN members. ....For me, i believe that the Hogg is a great place to go to get good advice, see all kinds of pictures, get opinions on cameras and gear, and various OPINIONS on all things regarding...PHOTOGRAPHY. It should NOT be ..exposure to elitist, condescending Know-it-alls, that criticize anything they can, just to demonstrate how they are superior to the general photographer. I personally have a list of those types in my Hogg IGNORE list, but New people posting their images do NOT need “extremely caustic critiques.....A good or very good image is almost always SUBJECTIVE, ....tread softly, be sensitive. WE know that some folks aren’t pro here.....it’s a good thing...................................................................RJM