40oz
...
Seriously, I was gonna say!
j/k.
Babe Ruth swung at every pitch (supposedly - I'm to young to verify this). What makes you think you are any better ? lol.
(in baseball speak, you can't hit without swinging a bat. And you can't get home without running to first, even if you think it fouled out. The nice thing is, you can get on base even if you swing and miss, if you can run fast enough
But you have to swing. )
Publicly stating a goal makes it real and gives one motivation to make it real. But honestly, what is ever the "end purpose," if we are amateur hobbyists simply looking to inject a little creative spirit into a life that seems to lack any reward for the common (wo)man's endeavor to excel?
Let's be honest - the RFF galleries are a vanity press in the best sense. If one can't indulge in a harmless hobby without having to cop to a mea culpa at the realization that much that one does is derivative and "lazy," we'd all get nowhere, and nobody but the arrogant and clueless would get any recognition. How many shots by Capa did he think were garbage but others thought were gold? Don't you suppose Walker Evans ever thought "obviously nobody cares?" Did Bresson think the shot of the guy jumping across the puddle was a picture for the ages, or simply something he was proud of catching? I'm pretty sure they take your artist card away if you don't have self-doubt.
I seriously doubt that posting on RFF qualifies one as an "attention whore." It's simply too small a group Simply acknowledging a greater community isn't being "needy," it's acknowledging a greater community - something that tends to bring other members into the group by that very public acknowledgement. In other words, it's a good thing that someone feels the need to communicate - that's what defines a group - those who communicate amongst themselves. You can't really have a group unless the members acknowledge membership with some kind of responsibility.
And always remember that no matter how crappy something is, there is a rabid fanbase out there. You're probably big in Japan
j/k.
Babe Ruth swung at every pitch (supposedly - I'm to young to verify this). What makes you think you are any better ? lol.
(in baseball speak, you can't hit without swinging a bat. And you can't get home without running to first, even if you think it fouled out. The nice thing is, you can get on base even if you swing and miss, if you can run fast enough
But you have to swing. )Publicly stating a goal makes it real and gives one motivation to make it real. But honestly, what is ever the "end purpose," if we are amateur hobbyists simply looking to inject a little creative spirit into a life that seems to lack any reward for the common (wo)man's endeavor to excel?
Let's be honest - the RFF galleries are a vanity press in the best sense. If one can't indulge in a harmless hobby without having to cop to a mea culpa at the realization that much that one does is derivative and "lazy," we'd all get nowhere, and nobody but the arrogant and clueless would get any recognition. How many shots by Capa did he think were garbage but others thought were gold? Don't you suppose Walker Evans ever thought "obviously nobody cares?" Did Bresson think the shot of the guy jumping across the puddle was a picture for the ages, or simply something he was proud of catching? I'm pretty sure they take your artist card away if you don't have self-doubt.
I seriously doubt that posting on RFF qualifies one as an "attention whore." It's simply too small a group
Simply acknowledging a greater community isn't being "needy," it's acknowledging a greater community - something that tends to bring other members into the group by that very public acknowledgement. In other words, it's a good thing that someone feels the need to communicate - that's what defines a group - those who communicate amongst themselves. You can't really have a group unless the members acknowledge membership with some kind of responsibility.And always remember that no matter how crappy something is, there is a rabid fanbase out there. You're probably big in Japan
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blw
Well-known
Haha....40oz imparts some wisdom here....through a blue bull's heart.
Another thing to say here is: damn.... at least you've been posting SOMETHING. I suppose there's a fine line, but I have plenty to post and I just refuse to take the time to sort through it and resize and post what I like here.
So there's one other perspective for you. Best of luck to you and your focus OurManInTangier!
barry
Another thing to say here is: damn.... at least you've been posting SOMETHING. I suppose there's a fine line, but I have plenty to post and I just refuse to take the time to sort through it and resize and post what I like here.
So there's one other perspective for you. Best of luck to you and your focus OurManInTangier!
barry
jan normandale
Film is the other way
Athena, maybe someday members who post on photography threads will also have photographs. Just a thought.
OurManInTangier
An Undesirable
Athena said:
Ouch. Yeah communication, who needs it?! Whereas attention, I lap it up as I'm just that weak. Don't tar me with your brush please.
40oz said:
I appreciate the sentiment and logic behind everything you say but feel I should point out that its not self doubt that I was suffering from. I was in no doubt that my pictures were junk and I needed to sort that out.
I'm very happy as I feel I'm on the right path, not just through a short term dry spell, which I fully expect will be a recurring event, but that I've made a decision on how to begin improving as a photographer.As for the apologising....that's more my silly Brit humour than inate British desire to apologise for everything and anything regardless of it not necessarily being our fault.
Awfully sorry chaps
ClaremontPhoto
Jon Claremont
OurManInTangier said:
As in some stranger bumps into you in the street and you say 'sorry' to them?
OurManInTangier
An Undesirable
ClaremontPhoto said:
Exactly! The one I always find funniest is when two of you are heading towards each other on a path and both move to the same side, then both move to the other followed by a slightly embarrassed smile and the perfunctory English apology to each other. Good manners in the extreme or simple national insanity?
ClaremontPhoto
Jon Claremont
I like the 'Thank you' thing best.
Bus conductor: 'Thank you' meaning can you please pay.
Passenger: 'Thank you' meaning I want to pay.
Bus conductor: 'Thank you' meaning thank you for paying.
Passenger: 'Thank you' meaning here's the money.
Bus conductor: 'Thank you' meaning thank you for the money.
Bus conductor (again): 'Thank you' meaning here's your change and your ticket.
Passenger: 'Thank you' meaning thank you for the change and the ticket.
An entire transaction. Try explaining that to somebody who has English as an Additional Language!
Bus conductor: 'Thank you' meaning can you please pay.
Passenger: 'Thank you' meaning I want to pay.
Bus conductor: 'Thank you' meaning thank you for paying.
Passenger: 'Thank you' meaning here's the money.
Bus conductor: 'Thank you' meaning thank you for the money.
Bus conductor (again): 'Thank you' meaning here's your change and your ticket.
Passenger: 'Thank you' meaning thank you for the change and the ticket.
An entire transaction. Try explaining that to somebody who has English as an Additional Language!
S
Swann
Guest
Simon, I read your apology with a lot of interest. It's accepted but I think you are wrong. You are thinking too much. As you know well photography is a language of its own and it deprieves itself of thinking in words. Somebody like you with a strong gift for language is easily tempted to muse on every theme including your own pictures.
Leave that to others. Leave it to us here. The cardinal benefit of a forum (gallery) like RFF is that you get reactions and ideas from others and the sum of the comments, like a good teacher would, helps you finding a way. My only concern is that people here are so friendly and polite and I would sometimes wish somebody would tell me one of my photographs was bad or mediocre (what some of them really are), but silence sometimes says enough.
I wish you to go out and shoot. No thinking, shooting. That's the most difficult task but you can do it. I have seen it many times.
Best regards
Christoph
but I think you are wrong. You are thinking too much. As you know well photography is a language of its own and it deprieves itself of thinking in words. Somebody like you with a strong gift for language is easily tempted to muse on every theme including your own pictures.Leave that to others. Leave it to us here. The cardinal benefit of a forum (gallery) like RFF is that you get reactions and ideas from others and the sum of the comments, like a good teacher would, helps you finding a way. My only concern is that people here are so friendly and polite and I would sometimes wish somebody would tell me one of my photographs was bad or mediocre (what some of them really are), but silence sometimes says enough.
I wish you to go out and shoot. No thinking, shooting. That's the most difficult task but you can do it. I have seen it many times.
Best regards
Christoph
Quercus
Quercus
Is any picture ever rubbish - i guess it totally depends on what your expectations of the photograph are If we are looking for moving, emotive, charged aesthetically pleasing "art" then I would guess that some do that more than others. If the picture tells us a story then do we really need a technically excellent image and often I believe the thing that photography really excels at is when it captures a moment a time a place then those photographs are never rubbish.
My 6 year old son takes wonderfully out of focus blurred and often thumb intruded images with a cartoon character plastic camera - he loves them I love them - but every now and again he produces by luck a very acceptable portrait - those to him are the least important ones it is the funnies that matter... mmmmmm maybe I should enter some into abstract salons
more so than beauty, rubbish is certainly in the eye of the beholder, but often when he beholders eyes are actually shut
My 6 year old son takes wonderfully out of focus blurred and often thumb intruded images with a cartoon character plastic camera - he loves them I love them - but every now and again he produces by luck a very acceptable portrait - those to him are the least important ones it is the funnies that matter... mmmmmm maybe I should enter some into abstract salons
more so than beauty, rubbish is certainly in the eye of the beholder, but often when he beholders eyes are actually shut