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Dave wrote:
"...no one is ever going to see those comments, so why don't you sent
those comments to the list instead, where they can be compared and spur
conversation instead of the dead silence that
usually follows the vote?
And YES, it is best to wait until after the vote is over to post your
comments to the list about the shot you voted for, so that there is no
bias during the vote..."
Greg's turn:
Having read another of Dave's messages I know we're all slated for
some sort of message concerning SPORRS on Monday but I'm going to jump
the gun and fire off one of my own first.
I think the SPORRS shot of the month was meant to be a catalyst to
get discussion started on composition, approach, film and camera
chemistry and mechanic unfortunately they seem to kill discussions. I
get the impression that there is a sizable percentage of people on the
SPORRS list that view the whole web site as a contest, and forget about
discussion part of the page. It seems counter productive to "freeze"
comments about shots until after the vote. By the time a shot selected
the image is already getting stale and we've lost the opportunity to
discuss the image. There were several shots posted earlier this month
that I felt worthy of some immediate comment and no one followed up.
We're you afraid that you might biased the vote, or were you afraid that
any discussion on someone else's shot might undermine your own image (a
minority). I also know some ex-SPORRS people felt jilted about not get
as many votes as they thought they deserved and quite.
Personally I'd like to forget the contest part and just discuss the
images. If try to win a contest is your prime motivation then send the
shot off to Train or one of the other contest running magazines. Of
course you won't get any feedback from them but at least your
competing. What I want to know from submitters is why they think their
shot is good, why they framed it the way they did, and what the type of
equipment and film went into the shot. Some of us who are more familiar
with the computer scanning side of the hobby may want to know more about
how the image was tweaked on the computer. And yes I like to know where
the shot was taken but that's secondary.
I also want to know what's in vogue these days in photography and
Dave hinted at this in his comment about the National Geographic story
on the Trans-Russina trains. In that same issue is a photo essay on a
colorful parrot type bird ; you would think that a colorful subject like
that would scream out for a bird wedgie. Wrong the best picture was a
low light, back lit silhouetted shot with nearly no color to it. Hell
it wouldn't even make a good bird roster shot.
I know damn well most us won't even shot that picture because the light
was "wrong".
We're all going to learn more about photography (via trains) by
risking a few more constructive or critical comments on submitted shots
than by competing on that shot of the month thing. If all you want to
do is look at pretty pictures buy one of those $50 plus train books, but
if you want to discuss the shots and learn something in a pseudo
interactive format use this forum.
Greg Anderson
St. Louis, MO.
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-> SPORRS: 'Serious Photographers Of Railroad Related Subjects'
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