...and Ladies, please.
Okay, Joe, perhaps I just need to say "ooops" and back up. I haven't seen all this discussion you're talking about that I can recall in the period of time I've been observing the forum. What I've been seeing is a situation where folks are making suggestions that were confusing me and the things they're saying are being said with the force of the Almighty in some cases, many cases, perhaps most cases. Maybe I raised more than one issue here and maybe we just need to separate those issues out so those of us who are less experienced and isolated from the broader photography world can get a little better grip on what's going on here.
The person who recommended to me yesterday that I perhaps should punch up my color came onto the forum just in the recent day or so and was no doubt well-intentioned and approached it in a matter of fact and confident way, courteously stating what they'd like to see me do to my images and I immediately backed up and said, whoa, what the heck. Most of my shots have, for whatever the reason gone largely un-critiqued by most in here except the faithful few who seem to appreciate a fairly pleasant image and their reaction has been mostly very positive. I've been taking that as "no news is good news." Not so much with my images but, I've seen recommendations that, "you should tone down the green, your image is out of focus, you need to do this or that," and I'm sitting here often not necessarily in complete agreement. I've seen a need to soften my own assessment of the images of others for a variety of reasons.
I'm wondering, "is it just me, or what." I'm not happy about that. It leaves the big question unanswered - "am I just peeing into the wind here or is there hope for me. Will I ever see it." The things I've seen in here have made me question whether any of my images would ever "make the cut." It hasn't caused me to lose any sleep since I'm not eating from the photography trough but I'm thinking, "if I'm getting what I'm taking away from here, what is happening with the folks who come into this forum saying, 'I'm brand new to photography.'" Some of them must really be confused not having a clue as to how to separate out what they can rely on as being valid and what they have to accept as useless. Any ideas on that? I would like to hear something besides, "beauty is in the eye of the beholder." I think we have to reserve that for when everything else fails. If it's real, then there's a real explanation.
I don't feel like my shots have been critically, adequately, and objectively assessed and while it's gratifying that there are those who appreciate my "work," it isn't very gratifying when someone blasts you out of the water when you're sitting fat and happy with what you're looking at. So, what you seem to be saying is have fun, show your work if you want to but you're really not likely to benefit critically from doing so. Okay. Fair enough. That sheds another light on what's going on here and I'll approach it from another angle.
This is my first participation in a discussion group of any kind and I've been on the 'net, as I've said, since before there was a
www. As for the folks who have been using this forum as a bully pulpit, well... I think there's still merit in the discussion but I also think the game changes here. Sorry! I was hoping we were dealing with something a little more definitive. Obviously, we aren't. There's still some very good information to be gleaned from here being pointed to the useful urls, educational forums, etc., but it is clearly not a place where we can expect to come and get a seriously meaningful view from others about our work. It just isn't. So then it becomes "show and tell."
I apologize for bringing this up since there "has been no dearth of discussion about this subject." I'm just not sure how I missed that. I've been glued to this forum since I found it and I don't recall this discussion existing in to any degree of detail. Passing comments, maybe - thorough discussion? If so, I just missed it and it looks like I'm not the only one. Excuse me, please. I disagree with and dislike needless redundancy. Have a good one.
:-)
br ...and Ladies, please. br br Okay, Joe, per... (