I had some pictures on Flickr but I thought about it and decided against giving them my work for free.
Who.. Flickr? They don't own it.. you do... unless you didn't set your preferences correctly. If you mean peopel on the internet in general.. wel.. you need to wake up and smell the coffee, because there's no other effective way to market your images these days. You can languish and fail like all the other dinosaurs that refuse to accept the photographic industry has changed, or you can accept that putting your stuff out there is the only effective way to market yourself, and that the risks are essentially minor, and worth it.
Update: today I took several pictures and deleted around 95%.
You're THAT bad? Wow.
Exactly what my brother said when I refused to give him photos of his daughter taking her first steps.
You denied your own brother the image of his child taking her first steps because they didn't meet some obscure standard? You sir, are NOT a photographer. You clearly have no bloody idea what images are for, and why they are taken.
Shots of a toddler taking her first steps would ideally be in sharp focus; I doubt if anybody even here would disagree?
Ideally, yes, but if the only image there is in existence of the event is NOT in focus, then no, I bloody well disagree with you. They will still be as cherished, and still have the same power for him even if you decide they don't meet some standard that no one else gave a sh1it about.
I wasn't going for an arty stylistic snot in McDonald's, wasn't an option. So I deleted them. Why should I have poor quality blurry shots attributed to me?
Like anyone gives a toss? No one knows who the hell you are anyway... your brother just wanted his daughter's first steps recorded.
You get one chance with some things and if you fail you should face it like a man, even if you're a woman.
The child didn't choose to take her first steps in McDonalds... LOL
We live in this digital age where people think they can just "undo" everything. Well you can't. You get one shot. Unless of course you want to talk about a chameleon that was basically nailed to a log. Ok there you have all the shots you want. What's the point though, it isn't real. Reality is defined by one shot. Things happen once, deal with it. Embrace it. You can't put your foot in the same river twice, no, you can't even put it in the same river once. One shot. if you get more than one shot, it probably isn't worth the effort.
...and sometimes,.... that one shot may be blurred... and you have the only record of it... a bit like you know... Robert Capa on the beaches of Normandy. You didn't hear HIM bitching about "one shot... that's life.... be man enough to admit it"... Christ you sound like a monologue from a Sylvester Stalone movie... it's pathetic. You've probably never been in mortal danger in your life, so stop making out that photography is this life and death situation where only real men have some sort of "right stuff". If it's good enough for Capa.. who has the integrity to sacrifice his own "standards" to show the world a blurred image, then do you seriously think anyone is going to give you and your bizarre set of standards the time of day? You think anything you will take in your lifetime will have the import, gravity and world changing power that those BLURRED images taken in 1944 had? No... so stop being an arse.
Yes, it's important to attain correct focus in many situations, and I think most people agree with that, but you're taking this to the kind of extremes that border upon obsession. In my CONSIDERABLE experience, people obsessed with technical perfection at the cost of all else usually take very, very dull photographs.
All your macho posturing, drawing parallels between photography and hunting fool no one: You actually just sound like some over compensating closet gay man desperately trying to add some machismo to everything you do. You mention woodpeckers... so I bet you shoot wildlife... that coupled with the attempted analogue with hunting... yeah... I bet I'm pretty close. Well... I have had the pleasure of meeting Andy Rouse many times, and I can assure you even he is not beyond letting technical imperfections slip through with a bit of post process help if the shot is important. You gonna have a pop at Rouse too? Does HE not meet your standards either?
You know what? I reserve judgement on someone's ability as a photographer until I see their work. Many armchair photographers on here can talk the talk every bit as good as you can... it's walking the walk that matters... there... is that macho enough for you? I was even wearing a Stetson when I said it. I'll draw the line at the leather chaps... that's possibly more your speed.
