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09/10/2003 01:09:52 PM · #26 |
I take photos on my own terms.
If any of them happens to match Thar subject I used it.
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09/10/2003 01:11:16 PM · #27 |
If somebody would have told me that I would have been contributing to a website for free and voluntarily just few weeks ago, I would have bet that it would never happen... After all I am a very "material boy".
Since I hve known DPC I got hooked and I started competing not missing one challenge so far.. even last week, that I was real busy on a short holiday, I managed a mediocre shot of my family's dog and happily submitted it to the "Oops" challenge.
I have partecipated to six challenges so far.. with three shots which I believe were quite good (if not sensational! ;) and another three shots which I knew were doomed by mediocrity even before they were judged.
To compete is great fun and it returns something unvaluable: feedback. If you think about it.. it is not so easy to have feedback about your work and, for creative works, the feedback of the people is everything.
That's why it is so important to me that the competition is fair, that trolls are eliminated from this material plane and that the voting system is the best and most honest possible.
Because if the feedback is faked than the whole thing falls apart and it becomes a kind of circus organised for the weirdest purposes..
I also disagree on the fact that challenges will certainly influence everyone's photography. They do if you are not aware of what you are doing, if you are too concerned to win ribbons and if you have no chance of having your own style.
I have no style at the moment and, before DPC, photography was just a good intention to me.. but I have no doubt that by applying constantly and seriously I will develop and eventually even find my own style.
My experience tought me that results come by a combination of talent and work.
However, there is a general misconception that the existence of talent is proved by the feedback... the existence of talent can only be proved to yourself by your actual love for the game.
The feedback, on the other end, is essential to develop the game.
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09/10/2003 01:11:20 PM · #28 |
Well yeas, sucking the creativity is happening, but only due to the stupidity of DPC's rules that no editing be allowed.
DPC makes competitions non creative. How I would love to add a layer or 2, or increase the blueness of some skys. Dodge and burn some edges.
One way around this - is for DPC to relax on the editing rules.
Editing makes a good photo into a great photo.
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09/10/2003 01:22:15 PM · #29 |
Originally posted by jonpink:
Well yeas, sucking the creativity is happening, but only due to the stupidity of DPC's rules that no editing be allowed.
DPC makes competitions non creative. How I would love to add a layer or 2, or increase the blueness of some skys. Dodge and burn some edges.
One way around this - is for DPC to relax on the editing rules.
Editing makes a good photo into a great photo. |
True, but I personally disagree. I feel like it would be so much easier if we could spot edit. I wouldn't have to be as careful, give it as much thought, etc.
I like the fact we can't edit. We are then judging the photography and not the photoshop skills. Just my opinion though...
I just wish people were so dictionary-strict on their definitions! It's a little silly.
Renee
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09/10/2003 01:31:59 PM · #30 |
Originally posted by Everyday Renee:
Originally posted by jonpink:
Well yeas, sucking the creativity is happening, but only due to the stupidity of DPC's rules that no editing be allowed.
DPC makes competitions non creative. How I would love to add a layer or 2, or increase the blueness of some skys. Dodge and burn some edges.
One way around this - is for DPC to relax on the editing rules.
Editing makes a good photo into a great photo. |
True, but I personally disagree. I feel like it would be so much easier if we could spot edit. I wouldn't have to be as careful, give it as much thought, etc.
I like the fact we can't edit. We are then judging the photography and not the photoshop skills. Just my opinion though...
I just wish people were so dictionary-strict on their definitions! It's a little silly.
Renee |
I do not think that spot editing is an issue... I mean.. with spot editing a photo becomes a digital artwork falling in another category which could well live along-side the digital photography one.
What I find pretty hybrid and unfair is to compare a photo without spot editing with another where editing was completely allowed.
DPC has done very well so far in such sense, defining rules on a per-challenge basis. Even better would be to have two challenges alongside each other. One with very limited editing and the other one with no editing limitations.
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09/10/2003 01:42:39 PM · #31 |
| i have been around dpc for a long time almost since the beginning...and i know what it is to be in a rut and be frustrated with bad shots and low scores. it wasn't until i realized that the competition should be against myself and not other people that i have become more satisfied with my photography. trying to guess why voters here vote more on subject matter and less on technical excellence, why this or that picture received 12 one or two votes is crazy, you'll never find the answer. luckily since i am competing against myself, I set the bar real low the first half of my time here, so i find it easier to improve now. |
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09/10/2003 01:48:52 PM · #32 |
This is what works quite well on dpcontest.com, where they allow spot-editing. It's all about intent:
"Keep in mind that the intent of any modification is to produce a more natural looking photograph rather than an obviously manipulated one, and judges will make their selections on this basis."
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09/10/2003 02:10:14 PM · #33 |
Originally posted by frisca:
*i* am in a rut.. I know its just how the article posted describes it. Any ideas how to break out besides listening to self help tapes? :) |
The muses are fickle, frisca. Magic comes, and goes. This thread is a reprieve, and the timing could not be better, for me as well. It also an indication of the presence of humanity in this environment. I can't help but note the empathy I feel for Gordon's initial post and for the change of pace and texture of much that follows.
Magic, as any magician will attest, relies on fact. And facts (whoever it was who said this) is stubborn things that can't be drove.
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09/10/2003 02:16:21 PM · #34 |
Originally posted by zeuszen:
Originally posted by frisca:
*i* am in a rut.. I know its just how the article posted describes it. Any ideas how to break out besides listening to self help tapes? :) |
The muses are fickle, frisca. Magic comes, and goes. This thread is a reprieve, and the timing could not be better, for me as well. It also an indication of the presence of humanity in this environment. I can't help but note the empathy I feel for Gordon's initial post and for the change of pace and texture of much that follows.
Magic, as any magician will attest, relies on fact. And facts (whoever it was who said this) is stubborn things that can't be drove. |
I say "eschew obfuscation".
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09/10/2003 02:23:20 PM · #35 |
Great post, Gordon.
I found myself on the verge of quitting here, good, bad or otherwise. Fortunately or not, this place doesn't 'need' anyone - so it was quite willing to carry on. I realized I also don't need it - and I was quite willing and able to carry on as well...I took some pics, entered them, one's doing good, one's not. Oh well.
P - it does come and go. It stays so long at first that you forget life without a challenge to shoot for - but why did you come in the first place? Why do you take pictures at ALL in the first place?
M
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09/10/2003 02:41:28 PM · #36 |
Originally posted by muckpond:
another example: chefs. how many people started out loving to cook, and then go to work preparing food all day and then end up getting takeout when they go home?
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Do you know me from somewhere? I do still cook at home on the weekends though:) And I still take photographs for myself, besides challenges. The reason I joined DPC was/is to give me ideas, insperation, and reasons to shoot. and of course to learn for all you hotshot ribbon winners;) Keep up the good work.
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09/10/2003 02:58:59 PM · #37 |
Originally posted by achiral:
i have been around dpc for a long time almost since the beginning...and i know what it is to be in a rut and be frustrated with bad shots and low scores. it wasn't until i realized that the competition should be against myself and not other people that i have become more satisfied with my photography. trying to guess why voters here vote more on subject matter and less on technical excellence, why this or that picture received 12 one or two votes is crazy, you'll never find the answer. luckily since i am competing against myself, I set the bar real low the first half of my time here, so i find it easier to improve now. |
Man.. your photography is great!
However, I pretty much disagree with your idea of competing with ourselves.. it can become real boring and, ultimately, what would be DPC for then?
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09/10/2003 03:09:01 PM · #38 |
Your post is interesting; I am coming from the other side of the spectrum. I worked at a press for years taking photographs on assignment, got burnt out by the "creativity suck" that being paid to do your art often lead to. After changing careers and continuing to keep photography a central focus of my life, I have found that with no structure it can have the opposite effect of becoming baseless or even pointless.
Sure, you can take beautiful pictures and sure you can shoot weddings, portraits and other such shots for other people but without some structured at least some of the time I think personal artistic growth can stagnate and you get stuck. This site is very new and shiny for me, however I can already see myself thinking in new and exciting ways because there is a sort of structure (and a bar of standards to beat my work with).
Your thoughts come at a good time for me, because I can now work doubly hard on keeping a balance and not fixating on photography purely as a means to fulfill a contest.
Just my 2 cents!
pece,
stebe
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09/10/2003 09:58:53 PM · #39 |
I find the challenges to be a distraction from my photographic abilities. Somehow or other I have managed to take the three worst pictures I have ever seen for the 3 challenges that I have entered. I just don't have the time mostly and find myself not having enough time to think a challenge through. It appears to me that lots of the photos that I have seen with a blue ribbon (looking through the archives)have been the studio set-up ones. I am an outdoor photographer and trying to compete with the studio shots is frustrating.
However, I have found that my learning experience comes from seeing other peoples photographs and that is a good thing. Any time you can learn something it is a good experience. |
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09/11/2003 02:27:49 PM · #40 |
Originally posted by frisca:
*i* am in a rut.. I know its just how the article posted describes it. Any ideas how to break out besides listening to self help tapes? :) |
Some more suggestions
Lenswork forum on motivations |
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