[emf]

 

I did see a thing about putting a pez dispenser on your hot shoe though and randomly dispersing candy out when the kids behave, but I have yet to try that method

Oh my god – that’s genius!

 

 

[emf]

I don’t mind cut off fingers so much. I like the expressions of the two boys – especially the one on the right. But I’m not to sure about the little girl’s though. Also the tones seem a bit flat and over exposed in places; imo, I’m not sure there is enough variety of tones or contrast for this to work as a black and white conversion and feel it may work better in colour – i.e. there may be more of a colour contrast than a tonal one. Or perhaps shooting it at an earlier or later time of the day when the sun is more at an angle and creates more interesting shadows.

I’m sorry to say I also find the b/g a little distracting – there’s not enough of it, or a wider DOF for it to be of interest as an environmental portrait, so as it is, it’s just takes my eye from the subjects – especially things such as the white vertical and the other bright areas which grab my eye. I think a more OOF b/g would emphasise the subjects better.

Sorry, hope you don’t mind me saying this – I’m only a noobie anyway – so feel free to ignore everything 🙂

[emf]

Exactly…and if the starting point is so horribly off, you probably aren’t going to end up anywhere good. In this specific circumstance, with Maryah, I didn’t feel there was anything of substance to critique. It is a waste of time to offer advice on how to make these images better when she needs to get new ideas. I don’t know what those ideas are or should be. She needs to figure that out for herself. My answer is no, these do not work. It’s not appropriate for me to offer concepts or ideas. That is her responsibility. If she is incapable of that then she has more problems than just some dude ripping her apart online.

Again, if this was the real world (and I wholeheartedly believe that we should be preparing students like Maryah for the real world) she would get at most a “sorry you are not what we are looking for” or “we decided to go in a different direction”. Which is just a nicer way to say we don’t like your photos.

I think it depends where the concepts are coming from. My point is this; the ability to come up with original concepts is something that often develops over time. Not always, sometimes it never happens, but more often than not students go through a process of at first producing work that is fraught with cliches. We have ALL done this, even you, I am sure. At this point if everyone who did this got told to do something else, there would be no artists.

If it’s an experienced artist, photographer, whoever, producing hackneyed work, then, yes – I agree, they’re not good at their profession.  However if it’s a student, then I think you have to give them a bit of leeway to work through the cliches. Most artists will tell you they produced some cringeworthy stuff along the way, while they were finding their ‘voice’. This is normal.

I absolutely agree students should be prepared for the real world – but not by shattering their self esteem in the process.

 

[emf]

That’s such a great anecdote CC – love the quote about a ‘roaring lion’!

[emf]

but actually the middle child gave me the most grief with mugging for the camera EVERY time haha. It’s just disgruntling

 

haha – I have this problem, with my own kid! She used to be the perfect model but now is far to interested in my camera and 99% of the photos I have of her are with outstretched, blurry arms reaching for my camera. I don’t have a solution as of yet, but one idea I’ll try is to use a longer lens and try and go for more candid shots. Another solution I’m thinking is a cheapy p&s for her, so we can take turns taking photos. I got my niece a kid camera, which was expensive and terrible quality (well, I wasn’t expecting good, but still). So I’m thinking just buy a secondhand 20 pounds p&s instead – so long as it’s pink she’ll think it’s the bees knees and hopefully stop trying to grab my camera!

Another thing I can think of is from an interview I saw of Henri Cartier Bresson – where he said one trick he used – for all his portrait subjects – was to ‘take the photo’ first – formally, and say ok, photo taken. Then the subject would relax and he would just start chatting with them, engaging them etc. and all the while, continue shooting them. but without making it obvious. I suppose this depends on your camera and set up though as to how surreptitiously you can shoot.

Good luck 🙂

 

 

[emf]

I thought that was really interesting Brownie. With the family portraits, the images are quite nice individually but the whole thing works best when viewed as a series; they’re like movie stills – but the ‘movie’ is their lives. It’s interesting to see how they grow and change through the years and I like the tender moments, like of the couple dancing in their house. Are the scenes set up or are they real?

It reminds me of Eggleston’s portraits – of seemingly not very much, just these quiet,  little transient moments of family life that are easy to miss but can be quite beautiful. And to an extent Richard Billingham too, but rather less dysfunctional!

[emf]

LOL

[emf]

And it’s been my experience that the harsher the critique, the more the impact. My approach may not be ideal for most, but works for the few that have what it takes.

My personal experience as an artist is that harsh crits are better too. When I was in art school the scariest professor we had would even make the guys cry in the middle of crits – man you’d be a nervous wreck after a run in with this guy. He was also the best, and when he did, albeit very rarely, if ever, say something was good,  jeez – you’d be on cloud nine for a week! I don’t have any issue with harsh critique – that’s why I, and I’m sure many others, are here. My issue is when it’s not explained or clear. Fine, say it’s shit – but then say why, how can it be improved. I don’t get how you can say a whole concept is shit. Concepts are just starting points and it’s up to the artist to make something interesting from that concept or not.

 

 

 

[emf]

It’s old, but still one of my favourite books is ‘the genius of photography’ from the bbc series about 6 years. Not that I’d put it on my coffee table though as it would be destroyed by my kids :/

[emf]

EMF –  I’m certainly not white noise. I’m more of like a din, I think. LOL. The thing is, no one disagrees with my assessment of her work. No one disagrees with the idea that her friend doesn’t listen to her b/c he probably doesn’t respect her work. No one disagrees that the real issue here is her work, not her friends. They just disagree with my approach. I’m fine with that.

Well ok, I actually looked up white noise after I said it and part of the definition was ‘soothing’ – so I guess I’ll agree with you on that score! I get that you are from a much more cut throat world, however my background is teaching and often quite damaged kids – therefore, my approach has had to be tread light to an extent.  If I’d of crit’ed my students the way we used to get crits I’d of got chairs thrown at me or worse! . In my experience if you trash people too much, especially without sufficient explanation or clarification, they simply switch off.

[emf]

Sweet Jesus! How did this get 21 likes?  Just…how??

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=185634954939075&set=a.185634934939077.1073741892.151413085027929&type=3&theater

[emf]

I think it was quite a calculated move to ‘normalise’ themselves.

[emf]

crikey!

[emf]

I just get content unavailable.

[emf]

Thanks so much Debbie, that is really great advice and kinda along the lines I’ve been planning to go anyway, so it’s good to have confirmation of that.

I guess just since being on this site, I’m kinda shocked at these fauxtog f/b pages and how many likes and positives comments really awful work has. I taught art but students would often do photography projects and if they’d of produced some of the stuff these fauxtogs churn out, they would have failed. Yet, somehow people are making a living out of it and getting all these positive comments – it seems crazy!

Good luck with your business and thanks again for the advise 🙂

[Author]

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