LPS2: Wrong direction

adrian_k

hi all,

I've looked through most of the entries so far and alot of them seem to be going in the wrong direction (IMO). Maybe it's about my interpretation. Maybe I'm wrong and everybody else it right.:scratch

Imposing isn't the same as stately. Big isn't necessarily statley.


Fine photos: yes, but statley: not quite.

saurora

Sorry, but I will have to disagree with you here that imposing isn't the same as stately (spelled with an 'e' by the way...:D ). The challenge is the photographer's 'interpretation' of stately or humble, which could be a literal translation (which would mean several definitions from what I see in the dictionary). But as an artist you would also expect people to be stretching the definition and thinking outside the box. Let's hope the judges read Webster's before they vote and keep an open mind!!! :saurora

DoctorIt

Adrian,
that's the whole idea of the new contest themes - they are more open. There are so many parts to being a good photographer, technique, eye, but also, interpretation.

That's what Shay would say...

What I would say is: why are you so worried about what everyone else is doing?

Shay Stephens

The themes are worded, for the most part, in rather ambiguous ways. There are a few through the year that are specific, but generally, they allow a wide degree of latitude for interpretation. Humble brings to mind a myriad different directions one could go in. And stately, that too has a range from emotional to architectural and everything in between the intangible to the physical.

Now a word of warning, harping on what others do in killjoy fashion is going to stunt *your* artistic abilities and limit your vision of what is possible. Anyone who listens to you may similarly enter that myopic tunnel of what is and is not possible visually. Like Doc said, don't worry about what others are doing

Work instead on trying to express a concept with nothing but an image. Show us a new way to see the world, not one we already know exists!

adrian_k

Maybe my words came across at too critical. If so, sorry, that wasn't my intention at all.

Shay Stephens wrote:

they allow a wide degree of latitude for interpretation.

and I think that in the back of my mind was that there's alot of photos of big buildings. I had dismissed shooting a big building as too obvious and had wanted others to stretch the interpretation, but instead came across as imposing my views.

Shay Stephens wrote:

Now a word of warning, harping on what others do in killjoy fashion is going to stunt *your* artistic abilities and limit your vision of what is possible. Anyone who listens to you may similarly enter that myopic tunnel of what is and is not possible visually. Like Doc said, don't worry about what others are doing

I consider myself well and truly chastised. :smack

I'll shut up now.

Shay Stephens

adrian_k wrote:

and I think that in the back of my mind was that there's alot of photos of big buildings. I had dismissed shooting a big building as too obvious and had wanted others to stretch the interpretation, but instead came across as imposing my views.

Hehehe, well think of this. Let's say there is nothing but tall buildings entered for whatever reason. Everyone takes a strictly literal view of the theme. What can happen? One possibility is that people will focus more on that one interpretation, they will start to see ways of digging deeper into the meaning of that interpretation. One persons idea may spark someone else to think of an even more illustrative angle, composition, or time of day. At the end of the contest you might have a tall building photo that fairly screams at the viewer in a way we have never experienced before and might not have happened had only a cursory try at it been taken.

Creating a photo with a meaning can be an iterative process as you formulate and refine your ideas. It can be done on your own, or as a result of viewing what others have done. But getting out there and starting the process is the best course of action. You have to give your brain something to work on, to think about, and to morph into the final product. So start with something simple and obvious early in the contest. Then your brain has a chance to work on that and think of betters ways to do it. But if you wait till the last few days of the contest to try something, you may not have enough time for the brain to get beyond the obvious and/or superficial meaning of the theme and that will likely show in the photo.