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01/09/2012 03:39:26 PM · #26 |
Originally posted by KfirLevAri: With minimal editing and free subject, let us see what is the worst picture you can capture.
This time, voters will give high score for the worst picture. |
Thanks Kfir, this thread is amazingly entertaining. I have been thinking about the implications and they really are great.
I agree with others that the the way you suggest it would make little sense, many (not all by any means) will be thinking of bad exposure, lack of sharpness, WB off and the like.
But your idea really takes wings when I make an educated, evil, guess :)
Just not to offend anybody, let's take two extremized views with which nobody will hopefully actually identify.
Are you hoping to see people embracing the opposite of the style they are know for ?
1) Certain well known people posting cryptic, blurry, probably artsy-fartsy, meaningless shots
2) Certain other well known people posting aggressively processed, magazine-like, advertisement ready, meaningless shots
?
A challenge like this could never exist without a theme, whether 'portrait', 'emotions ' or whatever.
Because the theme is what defines what you think a good image could be, and only with a theme you could reverse that and come up with your ideally bad fail :)
But the thing is, the idea of two defined and opposite ways of thinking within DPC is in my opinion an illusion. When you look at the actual images, I see equal variety of approaches in this two imaginary groups, those who seem to embody the mainstream and those who seems to represent the counter-mainstream, if you like.
So, the real theme, and its opposite, only exist in the heart of the single photographer, unless she's deliberately copying something else, whether another succesfull photographer style or a set of succesfull guidelines.
This said, I would love to see a challenge like this. I think some really good images could come up. After all, if you reverse a generally 'good' process you don't come up with a 'bad' approach, but with something which will influence the viewer in the opposite direction. And who really think seriously of how to take a bad photo, I mean, not out of slackness, deliberately ? :D

Message edited by author 2012-01-09 15:44:46. |
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01/09/2012 03:50:30 PM · #27 |
Originally posted by posthumous: Originally posted by hahn23: It was George Halas who said, "Don't do anything in practice that you wouldn't do in the game."
Yes, he was talking about American football, but the concept applies to all endeavors. Life is short. Every moment and shutter actuation need to be dedicated to improving technique and artistic presentation if you want to improve enough to be a competent photographer. There really is no time to "try to take bad photos". Any effort which utilizes poor practices displaces progress towards a goal to be better. |
That's just wrong, including the quote. You discover limits by going beyond them. You explore the boundaries of "good" by going outside of them. |
C'mon man. No one is going to improve their photography in any way by shooting "poorly". We will have to agree to disagree. |
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01/09/2012 03:59:31 PM · #28 |
Originally posted by hahn23: We will have to agree to disagree. |
That was already my intention. |
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01/09/2012 04:03:40 PM · #29 |
oh my. photography is not football. nor is it football practice. and time, which may or may not be on the side of the footballist, is exactly what the photographer has to play with, along with light. how can someone say "there is no time to 'try to take bad photos'"? whither are you withering?
we can hone our skills all we want. but it won't affect our vision. |
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01/09/2012 05:31:27 PM · #30 |
Has there ever been a challenge where we are given a topic and everyone is asked to shoot for the brown ribbon? I thought that was what this suggestion was about.
Or maybe SC could just surprise us one day and post the results upside down - lowest score gets the blue ribbon! |
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01/09/2012 05:53:52 PM · #31 |
Originally posted by tnun: oh my. photography is not football. nor is it football practice. and time, which may or may not be on the side of the footballist, is exactly what the photographer has to play with, along with light. how can someone say "there is no time to 'try to take bad photos'"? whither are you withering?
we can hone our skills all we want. but it won't affect our vision. |
My statement and quote were meant as a metaphor... not a simile.
It's okay with me for anyone who wants to do so... go ahead and shoot foolishly and carelessly. Have fun & good luck! |
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01/09/2012 05:55:09 PM · #32 |
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01/09/2012 06:05:39 PM · #33 |
Hahn wrote "My statement and quote were meant as a metaphor... not a simile.
It's okay with me for anyone who wants to do so... go ahead and shoot foolishly and carelessly. Have fun & good luck!"
Not about foolish or careless, or even whether or not we have your blessing, but about the aptness of your metaphor, and your statements about time, which latter leave me kind of breathless and wondering if I will live long enough to have dinner. Taking a bad photo and trying to take a bad photo are 2 entirely different things; even thinking about trying to take a bad photo kind of shakes up the mind, which can, for those who plan to make it to dinner, be a good thing.
Message edited by author 2012-01-09 18:06:33. |
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01/09/2012 06:12:10 PM · #34 |
Trying to take a horrible photo? Why?
Don't take offence at what I am saying, but IMHO it's a waste of time. :) |
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01/09/2012 06:21:34 PM · #35 |
Originally posted by tnun: ...Taking a bad photo and trying to take a bad photo are 2 entirely different things; even thinking about trying to take a bad photo kind of shakes up the mind, which can, for those who plan to make it to dinner, be a good thing. |
Well, one never really knows how much time one has left. That's my point. |
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01/09/2012 06:21:43 PM · #36 |
waste of time or an exercise that may or may not bear fruit of even the tiniest interest? are there no gamblers here? |
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01/09/2012 06:22:34 PM · #37 |
Originally posted by hahn23: Originally posted by tnun: ...Taking a bad photo and trying to take a bad photo are 2 entirely different things; even thinking about trying to take a bad photo kind of shakes up the mind, which can, for those who plan to make it to dinner, be a good thing. |
Well, one never really knows how much time one has left. That's my point. |
But, but that was MY point!! |
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01/09/2012 06:31:41 PM · #38 |
Originally posted by tnun: Taking a bad photo and trying to take a bad photo are 2 entirely different things; even thinking about trying to take a bad photo kind of shakes up the mind, which can, for those who plan to make it to dinner, be a good thing. |
Very true. One thing is not caring or not knowing how, another is deliberately striving towards a goal, and one difficult to define, as for that.
Imagine how many "darn, this is not working, this was supposed to make it worst, not better!" There is so much beauty in the hiding and so much to explore :D
"Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back." |
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01/09/2012 06:37:46 PM · #39 |
Heck, do we really want to take ourselves so seriously that there is no time for a bit of nonsense along the way?
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01/09/2012 06:46:32 PM · #40 |
In all likelihood, I'll still be on the last page. |
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01/09/2012 06:48:01 PM · #41 |
Originally posted by jomari: Heck, do we really want to take ourselves so seriously that there is no time for a bit of nonsense along the way? |
And waste a valuable shutter actuation? Life is short, remember. And I smell dinner. |
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01/09/2012 06:48:52 PM · #42 |
Originally posted by jmritz: In all likelihood, I'll still be on the last page. |
I can see you shooting a water drop splash for this challenge. Perfectly clean. |
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01/09/2012 06:55:14 PM · #43 |
Forget taking the "worst picture". The real anti-challenge is to submit a photograph that you know has no chance of winning the average DPC challenge. This photograph does not need to be crappy. A free study to free yourself of the usual DPC restraints. Sounds like fun to me. Remember, if you try too hard you will win, and fail, the challenge. |
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01/09/2012 07:09:02 PM · #44 |
So the biggest challenge in an anti-challenge would be to get a brown ribbon?
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01/09/2012 08:39:13 PM · #45 |
Originally posted by bspurgeon: Forget taking the "worst picture". The real anti-challenge is to submit a photograph that you know has no chance of winning the average DPC challenge. This photograph does not need to be crappy. A free study to free yourself of the usual DPC restraints. Sounds like fun to me. Remember, if you try too hard you will win, and fail, the challenge. |
leave it to doc spurgeon to find the right words ... "A free study to free yourself of the usual DPC restraints" ... let's give it a whirl. |
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01/09/2012 10:44:27 PM · #46 |
Originally posted by PennyStreet: Originally posted by bspurgeon: Forget taking the "worst picture". The real anti-challenge is to submit a photograph that you know has no chance of winning the average DPC challenge. This photograph does not need to be crappy. A free study to free yourself of the usual DPC restraints. Sounds like fun to me. Remember, if you try too hard you will win, and fail, the challenge. |
leave it to doc spurgeon to find the right words ... "A free study to free yourself of the usual DPC restraints" ... let's give it a whirl. |
This is good. It's good to be original, non-traditional or unconventional. Go for it! That concept is quite different from the OP's concept of "taking a crappy photo" for the sake of "worst picture" status.
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01/10/2012 12:43:43 AM · #47 |
Thank you all for your comments!
Seems like I stepped into minefield placed between the ones who seek the beauty of art and the others who seek the art of beauty.
My original intention was to propose challenge that will cause all the participants to think outside their usual mind set.
This challenge wasn't about finding angle, subject, shutter speed..
It was about trying to investigate the other side of our creation process.
I agree with you mcaldo, I was naive to think that this will actually become a challenge :)
And I agree with what bspurgeon, PennyStreet and hahn23 are aiming for.
It's not about praising the worse, the anti-challenge should be about saying no to what we know. |
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01/10/2012 05:33:21 AM · #48 |
If indeed the aim of this challenge is to have people "Think outside of the box", then perhaps we ought to have another "Posthumous Challenge".
I would much prefer that to something that suggests that people ought to strive to do their best to produce something that qualifies as the "Worst" of possible images.
... and this would bring us back to the intent of my original post.
Ray |
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