The Vignette as an Expressive Tool

We may never agree as to the best presentation of this subject, if for no other reason than our personal connections or references to it are so different.

David, glad you got something out of my comments. And thanks for the response.

While I, too, consider personal connections and references important, I would also include, as importantly, differences in aesthetics and vision. I like to think that I and others can have empathetic responses even to objects and subjects we're not intimately familiar with. So, for instance, if I take a photo of my father and someone suggests an alternative perspective, crop, or style, I tend to accept that as a matter of aesthetics and consider it in that light. He may not know my father, but he has his own father and can probably still give me some good insights into how to shoot a man of that age, given what he sees of what I've already presented.

Though I'm not intimately familiar with the particular type of compactor you photographed, I'm familiar with many other types of machines and obviously familiar with skies and sand. So, in this case as well, I think it's in part about our personal references to the specific subject but probably more about the way we would treat and see that subject aesthetically. Neither of us is necessarily "right," of course, but I believe neither of us is closer to being "right," even for our own visions, because of personal references and experiences. I think aesthetics and vision are the key things to zero in on. Aesthetics do involve an intimate and personal point of view, but not one that is necessarily limited by specific subject matter, at least in my opinion.