Well, here’s a worthless comment from a guy who knows and agrees that the photos in his own gallery just flat suck. (Okay, sorry for the slang. I should use more proper English: “…just flat sucketh!”) And the reason I frequent this fine establishment is because, hey, I’m workin’ on it; working on improving the quality of my shots by talking to more experienced photographers and studying photographs that are of a far better quality than mine. Not too far down the road I hope to get comfortable enough with a couple of cameras and two or three lenses that I can actually put more attention on better content, better films and processes and Lord willing, a better quality end result. But for now, they suck.
I’ve never gotten the feeling from anyone here that RFF is a forum for only the Elite. On the contrary, in the few months I’ve been here, I can’t recall a single newbie who made his first post without getting hearty replies of “Welcome!” from several members. The overall temperament of RFF has been to be uplifting to any photog at any level.
From what I’m reading in this thread (and others), it seems apparent that the larger portion of folks replying here agrees that their use of the RFF Gallery is to share their “good shots,” even guys like me who know, for now, their good shots suck. And most seem to agree, “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”
But it also seems quite obvious to me that Joe here is not trying to squelch that at all, but rather to discourage the handful of “silent members,” shall we say, who are using RFF for a Free Online Snapshot Dump. And IMHO that’s not being “exclusive.” That’s being steadfast to the obvious objectives of RFF, to encourage ANYONE to become more knowledgeable of, more familiar with and improved in their use of the RF species -- and share the fruits of their progress.
So for that, Joe has both my blessing and my support. Joe, you seem to have quite a handle on how to go about resolving this quandary, so carry on and whatever I can adjust or do to help, count me in. I like this place and think I’ll just hang around awhile. I have no desire to run it or moderate it, I just want to learn to take photographs; maybe one day, photographs that don’t suck.
“Posting 30 photos at a time?” Give me a break, for cryin’ out loud!! I can process 5 rolls of film at once and don’t get thirteen frames that are in focus!
