I was up all night "making photos" again. And I thought.
It may be shallow, stupid, and a waste of time to really "care" too much about "winning" the challenges, making the finals, etc.
But how much do we do in life that that could not be said of?
Lipstick, hair washes, clothes, good grades: OK, personal satisfaction, but how many people have said, "how does this look" when speaking of hair, clothes, etc?
Even feeding people, parties. I am going to church, just got up, but I think there is history that would say we, as photographers, on dgrin, are not the only ones in the world, hoping for, seeking, affirmation.
After all, we have dogs don't we? They affirm us no matter what.
I haven't cared the last few challenges, but I will say my wins have been as important to me as almost any A in school I ever got.
Work? Don't you all love a nice done word from your boss?
gotta go,
was so happy to win the last time, more than anything should have meant, but on it hung my worth and my photography............that is an exageration, but I was DAMN HAPPY to Win. It meant a lot to me.
I keep shooting when I don't, but I do like praise.
Speaking of that, I have photos around waiting for praise, maybe they don't deserve it, but .................. "nice shot" goes a long way with me.
I have more, they will be put up, and I worked on some last night until too tired to put them up: pelicans. And I know pelicans don't count for much here as rare birds, but they were there, I shoot what is there..........
Well, this is a messy thing, my husband is waiting for me. I just was thinking.............. Do you all understand at all what I mean? We do many things, foolish things, to get affirmation and praise in this world.
Don't be so hard on egos. Everytime we post a picture we are pretty much saying "heh, look at what I did". Everytime we praise a picture we are also feeding an ego and thats OK. For myself, my ego needs a pat very once in awhile (every 5 seconds is preferred ).
Most of us here don't sell our work. Our friends and family mostly run away and hide when we try to show them our latest efforts. The only place we can show our stuff is on these forums and challenges. Our starved egos need a feeding every once in awhile. As for the maniac part lets add up how much we have spent on our "hobby". Let anyone here w/o an ego and who isn't a "maniac" cast that proverbial first stone. Myself I don't qualify.[/QUOTE
I know...I tend to really beat up on egotists... sounds like I am part of the group:D
I was up all night "making photos" again. And I thought.
It may be shallow, stupid, and a waste of time to really "care" too much about "winning" the challenges, making the finals, etc.
But how much do we do in life that that could not be said of?
Lipstick, hair washes, clothes, good grades: OK, personal satisfaction, but how many people have said, "how does this look" when speaking of hair, clothes, etc?
Even feeding people, parties. I am going to church, just got up, but I think there is history that would say we, as photographers, on dgrin, are not the only ones in the world, hoping for, seeking, affirmation.
After all, we have dogs don't we? They affirm us no matter what.
I haven't cared the last few challenges, but I will say my wins have been as important to me as almost any A in school I ever got.
Work? Don't you all love a nice done word from your boss?
gotta go,
was so happy to win the last time, more than anything should have meant, but on it hung my worth and my photography............that is an exageration, but I was DAMN HAPPY to Win. It meant a lot to me.
I keep shooting when I don't, but I do like praise.
Speaking of that, I have photos around waiting for praise, maybe they don't deserve it, but .................. "nice shot" goes a long way with me.
I have more, they will be put up, and I worked on some last night until too tired to put them up: pelicans. And I know pelicans don't count for much here as rare birds, but they were there, I shoot what is there..........
Well, this is a messy thing, my husband is waiting for me. I just was thinking.............. Do you all understand at all what I mean? We do many things, foolish things, to get affirmation and praise in this world.
ginger
Hey Ginger,
if staying up all night working on photos makes you a happy camper..then good for you. I have done that myself. I enjoy workng on my photos and time slips away. it's good for the creative soul.
A win in anything should be valued when you have worked to achieve it. The forums are here for the purpose of sharing...when affirmation comes along..take it! It is valued and it does mean something.
Lots of good comments here. I think it's ok for people to bring up ideas for the challenge. I don't think it is perfect either (I think there's a bit of truth in all the criticisms) but I'm not sure changing would make it better (plenty of things that are good about it!).
I like the current combination of judging/selection and voting. I think it allows enough pictures to make it into the finals but limits the selection to just a few that are, hopefully, selected to be the most representative of the challenge and the photographic qualities we are striving to learn....
I always thought of a "snapshot" as a picture that was captured without much time taken to think about composition nor post-processing. As some of you stated, not necessarily a bad thing...I think the famous picture of the Vietnamese man getting shot by an officer in the Vietnam war was a "snapshot" but it caught an important and poignant moment that spoke so much about the nature of war....
I tend to also think of "snapshots" as the "Kodak moment". Pictures that are taken at the spur of the moment. Most of the time these don't really do much for others except for the close circle of family and friends that have some association with the subject.... They are perfectly fine to fill scrapbooks and capture the history of people we care about and love but it's safe to say they are not likely to be an artistically profound image.
I'm late in this discussion but I must say the challenge got me out into the field with no instructions, and it was really refreshing. It makes you exercise a different form of creativity *in addition* to the forms you already use in dphotog.
The limited time frame is probably the best aspect of the challenge IMHO. You have to do it or not.
Haven't entered anything yet, and I am having trouble choosing, but it's already been fun enough.
Haven't entered anything yet, and I am having trouble choosing, but it's already been fun enough.
I say the gear pic.
Sometimes you just have to go with your gut. When I do challenges (and I lose horribly every time so take this for what it's worth) I find myself not spending a boatload of time picking from the shots.
This is an odd analogy for it but for me it's like picking fonts. I see what each font looks like the first time and I get a feeling of what I want to use but the more that I hem and haw about fonts, the more they all start to look the same and the more I feel the need to hem and haw. See? Odd. But for me, appropriate.
I am odd after all.
Y'all don't want to hear me, you just want to dance.
I think the identify of the people who are in the final should be stripped from their entries and their ids replaced with a number so no preference can be given to voting for your friends. Not that I know anyone in this way.
I think the identify of the people who are in the final should be stripped from their entries and their ids replaced with a number so no preference can be given to voting for your friends. Not that I know anyone in this way.
I don't think this is possible as you can identify the picture from the challenge thread or any previous challenge related thread.
Whilst sometimes I think it can come down to a 'popular' vote it surely isn't always, but probably does have an overall effect on results.
I still think the vote results should be blind until the voting has elapsed. This prevents people from knowing who is winning and losing, preventing any one member to have the power on deciding who wins and surely keeps the whole thing even more 'fair game'. Not to mention the added anticipation this would bring to the game.
However this is only of my opinion as sometimes I have learnt you have to tread carefully when voicing them.:tiptoe And no matter what I'll still enjoy entering.
Comments
It may be shallow, stupid, and a waste of time to really "care" too much about "winning" the challenges, making the finals, etc.
But how much do we do in life that that could not be said of?
Lipstick, hair washes, clothes, good grades: OK, personal satisfaction, but how many people have said, "how does this look" when speaking of hair, clothes, etc?
Even feeding people, parties. I am going to church, just got up, but I think there is history that would say we, as photographers, on dgrin, are not the only ones in the world, hoping for, seeking, affirmation.
After all, we have dogs don't we?
I haven't cared the last few challenges, but I will say my wins have been as important to me as almost any A in school I ever got.
Work? Don't you all love a nice done word from your boss?
gotta go,
was so happy to win the last time, more than anything should have meant, but on it hung my worth and my photography............that is an exageration, but I was DAMN HAPPY to Win. It meant a lot to me.
I keep shooting when I don't, but I do like praise.
Speaking of that, I have photos around waiting for praise, maybe they don't deserve it, but .................. "nice shot" goes a long way with me.
I have more, they will be put up, and I worked on some last night until too tired to put them up: pelicans. And I know pelicans don't count for much here as rare birds, but they were there, I shoot what is there..........
Well, this is a messy thing, my husband is waiting for me. I just was thinking.............. Do you all understand at all what I mean? We do many things, foolish things, to get affirmation and praise in this world.
ginger
if staying up all night working on photos makes you a happy camper..then good for you. I have done that myself. I enjoy workng on my photos and time slips away. it's good for the creative soul.
A win in anything should be valued when you have worked to achieve it. The forums are here for the purpose of sharing...when affirmation comes along..take it! It is valued and it does mean something.
ginger
I like the current combination of judging/selection and voting. I think it allows enough pictures to make it into the finals but limits the selection to just a few that are, hopefully, selected to be the most representative of the challenge and the photographic qualities we are striving to learn....
Erich
I tend to also think of "snapshots" as the "Kodak moment". Pictures that are taken at the spur of the moment. Most of the time these don't really do much for others except for the close circle of family and friends that have some association with the subject.... They are perfectly fine to fill scrapbooks and capture the history of people we care about and love but it's safe to say they are not likely to be an artistically profound image.
Erich
I need some Ego stroking :lol4
I feel shame
My Galleries
Flicker
G+
Steve
The limited time frame is probably the best aspect of the challenge IMHO. You have to do it or not.
Haven't entered anything yet, and I am having trouble choosing, but it's already been fun enough.
http://photos.mikelanestudios.com/
Sometimes you just have to go with your gut. When I do challenges (and I lose horribly every time so take this for what it's worth) I find myself not spending a boatload of time picking from the shots.
This is an odd analogy for it but for me it's like picking fonts. I see what each font looks like the first time and I get a feeling of what I want to use but the more that I hem and haw about fonts, the more they all start to look the same and the more I feel the need to hem and haw. See? Odd. But for me, appropriate.
I am odd after all.
http://photos.mikelanestudios.com/
I don't think this is possible as you can identify the picture from the challenge thread or any previous challenge related thread.
Whilst sometimes I think it can come down to a 'popular' vote it surely isn't always, but probably does have an overall effect on results.
I still think the vote results should be blind until the voting has elapsed. This prevents people from knowing who is winning and losing, preventing any one member to have the power on deciding who wins and surely keeps the whole thing even more 'fair game'. Not to mention the added anticipation this would bring to the game.
However this is only of my opinion as sometimes I have learnt you have to tread carefully when voicing them.:tiptoe And no matter what I'll still enjoy entering.