The thing is that we are all different and it's natural to see things in terms of our differing likes and dislikes.
Is this a bad thing?
Is it necessary to berate one another or belittle another's photography likes?
Everyone will have their own opinions, it doesn't have to be a battle
I agree with every single word of that mate cool post Roger!!
Oh and cheers for the reply in lew of Jon ( and you too Dave).
Ahh street photography, alot goes over my head here lads hey ho.
I still find it strange that folks use this thing about an image maker going back somewhere for multiple attempts to make an image before a reward comes as some form of kudos ie it somehow makes an image better. It has always seemed to me that photography is an individual journey
Spending time even lying in a tube station is part of that individual journey. I tend to make images of wild thangs my images aren't better than any one else's cause me subject is wild or because I spent loadsa time crawling about in a field , it makes no difference. I scrubble about in the mud with hares or deer cause I enjoy the challenge,I enjoy their company I adore the solitude it's very simply ALL for me . Sure one hopes that if one does it enough ie practises one e might learn and sure make a better quality of image ( what ever the hell that is) , but all that is personal not a thing of kudos
I think folks miss out on the journey ,we all take don't enjoy that enough focus on that enjoyment enough Sure the reward in all this is an image and if that image is struggled for a bit the personal reward is plausibly higher,but it's a personal reward nowt else, Say an image took me weeks to make the fact I took weeks to nab it doesn't translate to a viewer they only know if I tell them it isn't ever evident in the actual picture
I like the image of the mice fighting for it's uniqueness , although I sort of feel the tog could have got more . The words accompanying the image state he is seeing a repeat behaviour might not be often repeated but he saw it " a few times " before making the image and then put some legwork in to make that behaviour into an image.. So it floats my boat as joe public but as a guy who also plonks about trying to make an image of beasties not so much. becuase I really thank there was more to be had. I think the question marks ie is it palydoh (lmao) could have been removed with a bit more 'erm tube craft
Mr B (Mr badger) this sharpness thing ( maybe the word obsession is not amiss) in wildlife image making is something of a personal struggle
I'm aware ,I'm deeply trying to retain me in all this making wildlife images lark
IE stu the member of joe public whom is silly nuts about animals rather than stu the wanna be image maker bound by rules of thirds and sharps and blown hilights . I don't want to be thinking about photography rules while trying to ( oh god this will sound lame) capture my subject's soul. I struggle walking this tightrope Mr B If all your peers make these razor sharp frames one is all but driven to .achieve the same, There is this constant monkey on my back thinking am I loosing something within that quest for sharpness. One gradually becomes aware that what one person views as sharp. another does not. Which makes things even more interesting.
Mr B this is a hard nut to crack to look at one's own images and see the big picture not be going to 100% to stare at sharpness especially in wildlife The conditioning to make sharp images in our genre is so strong . I agree puffins kingies etc everyone has had a crack at and sadly for me sins I might one day too . Sure they are done to death I don't think ill of anyone for that though But that's the case with all most every form of wildlife image making ,we all to a greater or lesser extent make similar images
I guess in many ways that's an indication of how we as a collective find wildlife,we largely don't go out and look as a first point of call we use the web find a place where dare I say others make piccies and go have a crack there . It's damn hard being original or rather making an original image !! I don't know if any of us really make that grade, or if it's even possible. Hasn't everything been done now and if it hasn't and I find that mythical original frame is that enough? Is my job done as an image maker if I personally think I might have done better???
My niggle with this image, is that "IF " it was mine I know in my heart I'd feel a need to go back and have another go. That bugs me becuase Sam Rowley has obviously done enough won a huge competition so all credit to him
,but yeah it would bug me Mr B.. I'm not sure whether I'm alone in that or whether it is even a good thing but that's where my head is . .
cheers David and Roger Jon MrB and everyone. A real interesting read
take care
stu