Praising you all...y'all

Dogman

Dogman

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I've been a photographer for a long time now and I've been exposed to a lot of good photos from a lot of good people. On a daily basis I visit a lot of photo sites and I'm a member of two other photography forums. I'm also a member of Flickr and I enjoy viewing the photos there. But I gotta say that this forum--RFF--regularly posts the best photos from the best photographers of anyplace on the internet. 'Course I haven't seen them all and I'm only expressing my opinion based on my own observations. But I seem to wanna hit the "Like" button on every damn photo that pops up here. You guys are great! Pat yourselves on the back, buy yourself a sack of Hershey' Kisses and pin on a gold star. You're all winners!
 
Great that you remind us of this Dogman. RFF remains an amazing place. And yes we get to see some terrific photographs, have access to some deep technical knowledge and experience, and have some interesting discussions. But there’s also a lot of wisdom and patience and tolerance here. And everyone, literally everyone, writes so well. I never see a typo.

I never properly understood colour negative overexposure flexibility before coming here. I might never have ‘stooped’ to putting non-Leica lenses on my cameras. So many subtleties of how images work I might still not know without the Gallery, still recovering from its recasting.

RFF is world-wide historical miracle.
 
It’s the reason I joined - and stayed. The lack of pretension, snarkiness, and deep knowledge (I was a young student with little understanding of the nuances of development and printing) have kept me here. I’m not a particularly active poster - but I’ve enjoyed the wisdom of Roger, Tom A, and many others over the last fifteen years. Here’s to many more to come!
 
You too, Dogman. I definitely include you in what makes RFF visits a rewarding part of my day. You always bring something thoughtful, kind, and constructive to forum life. I’m unfortunately a bit impatient and critical by nature, and you and many others here have been great models of consideration and acceptance.

John
 
Dogman, totally agree.
Since the revamp and posting photos has become so easy I have been posting like a madman and always worry I am up to the standard of this site. When I retired early I shut down my website and blog and only yesterday shut down my Flickr account so this is the only place on the internet where I post photos. The standard of photographs and the standard of comments on those photographs is unmatched online in my experience.
RFF feels like a site for grown-ups and nice people in general.
Having retired early and moved out into the Australian bush this site is the only contact I have with photographers and the only way I share my photos and I can only agree the standard is very high and a pleasure to see.
Thanks again, Dogman
 
Dogman said:
I've been a photographer for a long time now and I've been exposed to a lot of good photos from a lot of good people. On a daily basis I visit a lot of photo sites and I'm a member of two other photography forums. I'm also a member of Flickr and I enjoy viewing the photos there. But I gotta say that this forum--RFF--regularly posts the best photos from the best photographers of anyplace on the internet. 'Course I haven't seen them all and I'm only expressing my opinion based on my own observations. But I seem to wanna hit the "Like" button on every damn photo that pops up here. You guys are great! Pat yourselves on the back, buy yourself a sack of Hershey' Kisses and pin on a gold star. You're all winners!
Click to expand...
We all can include you in the status of Best Photographers too. Flickr is my warehouse for photos, from there I distribute them to sites like RFF, and lately it's been only RFF. Best darn site I've ever joined, especially now that the software has been sorted out.

PF
 
I first joined RFF a long time ago, back when I first started shooting rangefinders. I then had a life driven hiatus and came back only relatively recently. It’s the only place I use now to discuss photography. RFF provides a broad church and is, largely, adult in the nature of discussion. Plus, people here are often well established and so we have some real community. The quality and capability of photographers here is a real bonus too!

The gear focus here seems, mostly, less destructive than in many other places. I see no-one asking if they can put a chrome lens on a black body!

Now the gallery is sorted I hope we get back to that being more active again, with some sharing and increasing commentary.

Thanks to MP Guy and everyone who has made this place what it is over the years.
 
Honesty is my weak point.

Number of gifted doesn't change. It is very few and always.
Could digital help gifted ones to avoid technicalities?

Dmitry Markov was taking remarkable by its content photos with iPhones.
But image quality was far from remarkable.

Ansel Adams printed unsurpassed darkroom prints, but the content wasn't remarkable. Exposure, negative, prints are astonishing. Content... meh. To me.
But I'm not into landscapes, vegetation and sexy bimbos. Or birds.

For sure photos on RFF to me looks better than on LUF, used to be APUG and used to be P.O.T.N.

I think, I see photogaphy as media been on decline.

It was dominating during film only era. HCB wanted to be painter, but switched away from crowded competition to film photogaphy.

Film while it was affordable and people's time wasn't stolen was the base for golden time of photogaphy.

Every time I was searching lens, film camera - RFF threads will often came by Google search (was gone after RFF update). And to me it was very noticeable how great pictures were here some time ago.

They are fine now. But something was special in the times of cheap film and not expensive film gear.

I don't have time to explain more, have to pedal to work.
 
I’m having the best photography days of my life. I’ve never been more critical of myself than right now; and I love it. I used to think I had a keeper rate of 110%, now I think I have a keeper rate based only on my own high standards. Yesterday I went out and pushed myself to take photographs; I shot 38 pictures and I kept one. Two days previous, I shot and kept over 100. That's the way it goes these days.

I don’t think that the RFF community is the best judge of photographs… people tend to have their picks (likes) based on whether the image is shot on film or if it’s black & white, or if it’s a subject matter they’re familiar with. People like what they like and that includes the photographers as well as the photographs. We’re only human. Clicks and cults mix with artistic genius and just plain enthusiasum.

So, in conclusion, I say hats off to the people that are willing to publicly share their photographs in this forum. The people that put their shit out there knowing that it will either be well received, ignored or both.

It’s better to be positive than negative. It’s better to play the game and lose than not to play at all. We’re a community and that's not much better or worse than family.

Boy, can I blather on about nothing or what!

Mike
 
Ko.Fe. said:
…

Ansel Adams printed unsurpassed darkroom prints, but the content wasn't remarkable. Exposure, negative, prints are astonishing. Content... meh. To me.
But I'm not into landscapes, vegetation and sexy bimbos. Or birds.

…

I think, I see photogaphy as media been on decline….
Click to expand...

I recall James Ravillious explaining that he didn’t really like Ansel’s work as the prints looked like they were put together from lots of different pieces, or words to that effect. I tend to agree.

And yes, I think photography is on the decline as media - lots of reasons, but loss of trust is one and shortened attentions spans another I think.

Still, I’m happy to be here and have been wnjoying your pictures
 
What I see here, and what seems to be missing in many other photo sites, are pictures that have some personal meaning and value to whoever made them, and some opinion to express about the subject. A lot of what's trending and highly popular communicates nothing at all.
 
A personal connection between the photographer and the photograph, a story told… some real emotion… sounds great!

Meanwhile, for myself I’m pretty happy if I can get (1) interesting content (2) a well thought out composition (3) the things that should be in focus are in focus.

If I can create an image within those parameters I’m really happy.

To get my creative juices flowing I often visit art museums. There’s something about a good painting that inspires my photography. A painter often spends a long time working on creating one image. It’s not a snapshot, it’s a well throughout time consuming creation. It may only be some sunflowers in a vase, but through the painter's imagination and technique it becomes a work of art.

I don’t need my photographs to have a deep personal meaning. I just want them to look interesting and hopefully send the message to the viewers that I put some thought and effort into what I was doing whilst I was taking the picture. And, that includes the editing process too!

Mike
 
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