----- Original Message ----- From: "Bob Sullivan" Subject: Re: PESO: Harvest Moon
> Shel, > > What a stuck-up bunch of elitists we must look like. Put a picture up > and we'll tell you where your are failing. Is that why we have > PESO's? So we can frighten people off? What lurker is gonna put > something out in this friendly forum? > > I know you know John personally and perhaps he feels comfortable with > your critique. Funny, but I would of thought he wouldn't have > bothered to post the picture if he thought it was so common that it > would be immediately panned. > > This is what I imagine the Leica list is like. Post your picture and > we will tell you why it isn't good enough. Wow, I wish we were the > old Pentax list where folks tried to give constructive criticism and > friendly advice. I don't feel that spirit in your comments. Respectfully, I disagree, I have had my share of offlist abuse tossed at me because I practice disagreement. For the most part, pictures posted to the list are greeted with oohs and aahs. "Much nicer than any moon pic I have ever shot." "Intriguing, dramatic. Excellent work IMO." "Nice shot and an especially good conversion to BW..." With the occassional constructive critisism: "Wow, I was expecting to see a lot more web and a lot less spider. Not > too bad with the circumstances. Handholding with that a short of DOF > is quite difficult. > Nice work" That stops just short of a circle jerk. This is just not healthy. My mother taught me that if I had nothing nice to say, then say nothing. Is that what is expected? How can a person learn if they don't get told what they are doing wrong by their peers? If a picture is sophomoric crap, then someone should point this out. If a person's work is developing a boring sameness, they should be told they are developing a genre unto themselves, to perhaps snap them out of the rut they are getting into. If a picture is technically perfect, but esthetically boring, should that go unstated? If you put a picture out there, and solicit comments, then take the good with the bad. It's not just about pleasing oneself, and just because oneself is pleased with a picture doesn't automatically make it a good picture. Shooting broadsides at a picture may be unkind, shooting broadsides at someone who had made an honest effort to critique a photo, whether or not the critique is nice, is unfair. William Robb -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
