part 2 - how do you know if you have vision?

You look at your pictures, or better yet, somebody who doesn't know you does. If they say something, and that thing is coherently carried from photo to photo, or series to series, then you have vision.
 
I think it will show in the final print. When our individual style shows in our photos then our vision materalizes. I think what hinders us the most from developing our own vision is that we want to copy someone elses. I have also found that photography can not only be very uplifting & rewarding but at times very discouraging & depressing. It should be classified as a dangerous hobby to dive into.
 
How do you know if you have vision?

I'm sure M.V. will delight in telling most of us that we don't. He reminds me of a high school student who hangs around elementary school yards strutting his superiority. The only reason to do that is if you don't fit in at high school.
 
well, i see my post has become more about the bitter taste in some folk's mouth than the question i posed...

as to m.v., i have to agree with him and wonder why you guys are so pissed at him?
i don't really care for how the message was delivered but i think he was pretty close.
many of us are adequate technically but lack the vision of the greats. for me i wish it were not so but i have been shooting for a very long time and no one has 'discovered' me yet.
this sad reality however does not impede my joy for the gear or the shoot.
 
You're right Joe, but this isn't about feeling slighted. I really don't care what this fellow thinks. I don't know him from adam. I don't even know his real name. I have an issue with his arrogant condescending attitude and HOW he says it. I'm reacting to his manner, and lack thereof. This may be typical new yorker bruskness, but don't have to like it.
 
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Close your eyes and open them. If you see something, you have vision.

That said, I don't know anything about "the vision of the greats". Don't stuff up your head with expectations about how everybody else should look at you. Do what interests you.

Discipline is probably at least as important as creative genius. Not bothering constitutes discipline.
 
"People with visions need a doctor!" is what a banker who accidentaly also was leader of the Austrian social democrats once said....regardless of that I think that everyone of us has a vision but is not able to see it himself
 
In a simple way, vision can be envisioning how an image will appear before you take the photo. Galen Rowel used to emphasize this ability.
 
You know it if you do. You don't have the slightest question about it and you don't care what anyone else tells you.

PS: I don't delight in telling anyone anything about their talent or lack thereof. You asked me and I told you. I also think I'm capable of critical self-evaluation, which I also expressed.

I'm a better writer than a photographer. I'm an OK photographer, nothing earthshaking. I make my living writing, which I have done very successfully for most of my life. I also hate to have to write anything if I have to, usually when the client is about to murder me months past a deadline, I finish a job. But I can rant on for hours on a forum, where I don't make a dime.

* PS: I gave my opinion about the photographs of two people in the other thread. Do you think I'm wrong or wildly off the mark?

.
 
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