Reply To: Some Concerns of Mine

[Bill]

EyeDocPhotog – I’m not mad at you and I understand the reasoning. Trust me I take nothing on here personally.
I guess myself and IHF were thinking the same thing at the same time. I too value Ebi’s word and comment while never seeing his work, well except 1. Now Ebi has lately become a little more tactful and not as rough as he was before, but I find his approach to be very insightful as it is direct.

I’m not sure how the other’s approach is, but mine is that I try to find some positive within a set of photos then address any issues that I see. I try to always state my take on the CC and leave it open for more or less by others.
I think it is imperative to have a thick skin in this industry, not matter if you are a hobbyist, amateur or seasoned pro. You can’t please everyone all the time, especially in a very subjective world like photography. But no matter what the photography subject is, the fundamentals do not change.

I don’t like to just look at someone’s work and just tear it down and tell them they suck, but at the same time I don’t want to give them false hope if they really do suck. I think it is better to get real world and honest feedback than just fluff.
I tell my students this all the time, never trust the opinions of friends and family. Take a chance, do your best and present your work to the masses and build upon the feedback you receive. Of course not all of it is going to be glowing reviews, so this is why I tell my students, to be prepared and don’t take it to heart but use it for the next photo that you take.
I tell them my rendition of an old saying I heard, “If you perform the same procedure each time and expect different results, then your freaking crazy!”

What I think really bothers a lot of people on here is the fact that many of these so-called “pro’s” are charging for their services and offering sub-standard photos with bad compositions, out-of-focus shots, tasteless poses, and more. All while using an entry level point-n-shoot camera or using decent cameras in full auto mode and having no clue what any of the laws of photography are or what good composition is. These are the signs that tell “us” that you may not know what your doing, but they continue to charge people while using them for their learning curve.