Courtney- Class of 2008

jeffreaux2

NeilL wrote:

Yes, I said I recognised that clients have expectations and you must oblige them! Not all girls have these specific expectations, by the way. In fact, I know girls who wouldn't be seen dead in this style of photo! From a business perspective you lose these potential clients because you DON'T offer them what THEY want.

When you look back through the years at portraits you notice that there have been fashions. This style belongs to a current fashion, and it will be replaced by something different someday. Like with all fashion, change is not led by the consumer but by the entrepreneur. The entrepreneur creates need which wasn't there before. These girls don't want different because they have not seen what they would like better if they could! The photographer as entrepreneur can show them. Otherwise fashion stultifies, reaches a sterile repetitiveness. The stimulus for making it new (a nod to Ezra Pound) is created consciously, and can draw from things far and wide of the final application, as Pound drew on Chinese verse and the dynamism of mechanised society, among other things, for the creation of a new style of English poetry. The role of the critic is to raise consciousness so the dead end is avoided. And it's my impression that the best critics have rarely been the most successful practitioners!

My question to Jeff was about why this style of photography has to be ALL there is for these girls. Sure, give the girls something to take to school if that's important to them. But why give them ONLY that?! Can't the photographer show them other possibilities, which might have a more lasting value to them? Something which records them as personalities as distinct from versions of a fashion. I remember through my childhood coming back again and again to the shoebox my mother kept photos in. There were some glamor shots of her among them, but the ones that drew me most were of my mother and her story - the people and places I saw her with and in, the photos which helped me to KNOW her!

So, lighten up and loosen up, people, to the possibilities. Imagine!

Neil

We all carry concepts of photos in our heads. OPening a page of photos and dismissing them as poor photographic style just because they do not match our own concept is ridiculous. Wrapping the idea up in prissy prose does not excuse it.

I have seen you do this numerous times to others and several times to myself. Go take the shot you have conceptualized. Nobody here is going to do it for you.

1pocket

None of my business, but I think that Neil offered wonderful constructive criticism here. I only wish I got that kind of thoughtful and in depth response for my own work. I also hope a can handle it gracefully when and if that kind of excellent constructive criticism comes my way -- probably just when I think i did a great job, right?!

jeffreax2, I grabbed this from your opening post:

" ....C & C always is welcomed"

the C&C means comments and criticism, right? Relax and enjoy and consider sifting what you can use from the criticism part to grow your work. If you only want positive comments, just say so

evoryware

Andy wrote:

Yup, get to work on that calibration, but more importantly, learn to use the eye dropper, and measure the colors

Original on top, then a corrected version. Head over to finishing school if you'd like to know how

You captured her beautifully, jeffreaux!