Tonight I happened upon a rather interesting photograph.  Processed differently, it could have been a very beautiful photograph.  As it was, it was one of the most over-cooked photographs I’ve even seen.  In spite of this, for portions of the photo, I personally felt this worked, for other portions, it totally ruined it.

There were quite a few comments about the photograph, and while constructive, they weren’t well received.  This caused me to stop and ponder how I might best express the following thoughts…

I would like you, gentle reader, to consider this, praise without criticism is meaningless. Sincere criticism from a fellow artist is one of the greatest gifts one can receive. People that react in a hostile fashion to sincere and constructive criticism harm everyone, as they cause those who would give such gifts to be less likely to do so.  The fool rejects criticism and lashes out at those that offer it, yet the wise man meditates on it, that he may become wiser.

I’m unable to fault the photographer for his one comment, that was, that he liked it the way it was, and he wasn’t changing it.  As an artist, that’s his right.  The flip-side of this is that he failed to learn anything from the comments that were offered.

I realize I posted something already, but here is what was intended to be the first blog post.  I wrote this on January 17th, when the weather was doing a very good job of ensuring I wasn’t where I needed to be for work

So here I sit on a tour bus headed to a different airport from the one I planned on leaving from this morning, and the idea for my first blog post hits me.  As it will probably take well over an hour, I think it’s time to get work.  I have been considering the idea of starting a photography blog for a while now, and as they say, there is no time like the present.

It is my belief that perhaps one of the greatest errors that any photographer can make is to become too focused on his subject. Continue reading →