Target Practiceby
ShutterPugComment: It's just dumb, yet kinda scary at the same time...yikes...
Comment part 2:
Linda,
I will be happy to critique this furtherâ€Â¦people want to know why they get hit with a low scores, at least they say they doâ€Â¦so I will elaborate as per your request. : }
Perhaps dumb wasn’t a proper word, yet maybe it wasâ€Â¦I find this IMAGE simply unintelligent and mildly offensive. I do have a sense of humor, a pretty wicked one at that. I just find this image not at all funny or amusingâ€Â¦and by all the low votes this image received, I have a feeling I not alone in this thinking. I adore cats and have had the distinct displeasure of meeting more than enough people who find the thought of shooting/torturing them a delightful thoughtâ€Â¦violence against animals is not funny, it’s no joking matter. Actually, I don’t find any sort of violence amusing in any kind of wayâ€Â¦ be it against animals or humansâ€Â¦living creatures in generalâ€Â¦ life is precious to me.
I am tired of seeing images with guns is themâ€Â¦particularly the automatic/semi automatic handgun variety. â€Â¦Oh to see a revolver or perhaps a beautiful black powder percussion or flint lock rifle, these arms can be such works of artâ€Â¦America is obsessed with all sorts of violenceâ€Â¦enough can be seen at the movies and on the TV. It bothers me to see it on DPC too.
When I vote on an image, technique can play almost no part at all as to the vote I give that imageâ€Â¦emotion trumps technique almost every time in my book. A technically magnificent execution will never save a bad idea. When I was in school we could talk about our artwork/images for hours and never speak of the technical issues. Since you have asked though, I will comment on the technical. The image is not sharp on my screen and there seems to be an overall faint pinkish reddish cast to the imageâ€Â¦I am fully calibrated. The composition is not terribly interesting, the large black areas on the left and surrounding the image seem too vacant/deep, and the dark areas of the clip and the gun seem to get sucked into these dark voids. The image seems underexposed perhaps resulting in this loss of detail in the darker/shadow areas. The lighting also seems to be a little flat and lacks “dramaӉ€Â¦where there is a gun, there is also drama/tension.
I cannot look at an image and keep my personal life experiences, likes or dislikes out of the equation. This is why some images bring me a great deal of joy and why some do notâ€Â¦this is why art has always been a huge part of my lifeâ€Â¦it makes me happy and glad to be alive. There is just no point of looking at an image with the cold and calculating precision of a machineâ€Â¦sure I could if I had to, but why? I’ve juried more than a handful of exhibitions and was never once asked to set aside my emotions. Art is about enrichment, beauty, joy, recollection, pain, sadness, humor, light, dark, history, societyâ€Â¦it is about shared experience. Even if it is something as simple as recognizing that same little exquisite piece of light that happens to all of us if only we choose to see itâ€Â¦show me something wonderfulâ€Â¦make me feel something, something more than contempt or disgust. We all have our own definitions as to what good art/photography is, and this is mine.
There are so many beautiful images on DPC that are being dismissed simply because some find them to be “technically lacking” or “DNMC”. Technically this image was just so so in my book but it was how it hit me on the emotional side that garnered my original comment. I apologize for the length of this, I hope I have answered all your concerns and questionsâ€Â¦above all, it is my opinionâ€Â¦nothing more, nothing less.
Message edited by author 2006-04-06 12:27:57. 
Photographer found comment helpful.
