How has Photo.net changed or influenced your photography?

[Tim_Lookingbill]

<p>ralph said it best for me. Not much I can add except I'm a hobbyist photographer and photo.net aids by letting me know what I'm doing isn't a complete waste of time.</p>

<p>No Words forum is the simplest way I've found to give me ideas on what to shoot.</p>

[Palouse]

<p>Well, Photo.net has done a lot for me: stroked my ego, ruffled my feathers, pissed me off, made my blood boil, challenged me, enlightened me and more. Above all it has answered my many questions, most of which I never even knew to ask. <br>

It's an archive and a refuge of knowledge. Thank you.</p>

 

[Julie H]

<p>Natural follow-up question: how have you changed photo.net?</p>

<p>What kind of germ are you?</p>

<p>Are you an infectious pathogen?</p>

<p>Or are you probiotic, supporting, adding invaluable sustenance, both giving-and-receiving from your host?</p>

<p>I think I would be a pollen; an alien not-yet-hatchling, stuck in your nose and making you sneeze. In a pleasant way, of course. (Photo.net has a nose! Who knew!)</p>

[DickArnold]

I don't think I can ever learn enough. I have about 160 pictures posted here but none recently. Some maybe

good, some mediocre and some boring. I do not like down sizing my pictures in order post them. I don't have to

do that on other sites. But, I still find things to learn here almost every time I log in here and other sites. Julie, I

hope I am probiotic but not sure about how much I give. I sometimes think my photography is getting worse as I

age. I avoid entropy as much as possible by trying to absorb as much as I am capable.

[Tim_Lookingbill]

<p>Cool POV, Julie. Are you Miss, Ms. or Mrs. "Natural"?</p>

<p>You must've been a flower child back in the '60's who passed the acid test with flying colors prettier than a tie dye t-shirt and probably went cuckoo for Ken Kesey.</p>

<p>I'ld have to say I'm a sunflower here at PN. I turn toward the light of truth where ever it shines. f/8 and be there to get the shot. Groovy...can ya' dig it?</p>

[bob_bill]

<p>When I shoot, there are folks here in my photos. Dragging the shutter or using the softar filter, Nadine and Bob Bernardo. When I subtract light or use a Dean Collins technique, Tim Ludwig. The techniques I regularly use in lighting from more folks than I can name. One of the problems getting my most demanding and unusual setups was helped with a suggestion here. Heard of reading that shaped my approach to many shots. The questions here are like a daily photographic cross word puzzle for me. Question I never thought of but got the answers saved my bacon several times on location when I had the answer ready at hand when a problem arose. Also, if I have needed answers, can get them here. Don't know about your area, but brick and mortar camera stores are disappearing. I try to take the time to give back and help others when I can, having received from others. I am not a member, since that doesn't offer me much and I tend not to post photos on the internet after some bad experiences so I try to support the site by finding someone who appears to really be trying to master the craft and donate a membership to them. A major influence on my work, definitely. </p>

[dhbebb]

<p><em>When I shoot, there are folks here in my photos. Dragging the shutter or using the softar filter, Nadine and Bob Bernardo. When I subtract light or use a Dean Collins technique, Tim Ludwig. The techniques I regularly use in lighting from more folks than I can name. One of the problems getting my most demanding and unusual setups was helped with a suggestion here. Heard of reading that shaped my approach to many shots. The questions here are like a daily photographic cross word puzzle for me. Question I never thought of but got the answers saved my bacon several times on location when I had the answer ready at hand when a problem arose. Also, if I have needed answers, can get them here. </em><br>

<em>... I am not a member, since that doesn't offer me much and I tend not to post photos on the internet</em><em> ...</em><br>

Don't think me rude, Bob, but there's quite a contradiction between paragraphs 1 (long list of PN benefits) and 2 (statement that PN doesn't offer you much). I have no precise details of the relative levels of PH's income from subscriptions and advertising, but I doubt if PN would exist without subscribers. As for posting, your choice, but if you keep images to 800 pixels wide, the only people who will steal them will be amateur bloggers, and the number of times your images will be used in situations which would otherwise command a fee will be zero. If unauthorised use per se bugs you, OK - pros ask themselves the question "Have I suffered material loss here?" and if the answer is "No", they shrug it off. If you have the interest, Google "Bebbington Bowie" and see how many pages of URLs you get - some websites of institutions that have shown my pictures plus press coverage of shows, but almost all bloggers who would never have paid me a red cent.<br>

<em> </em></p>

[david_smith35]

<p>In a word, no it hasn't changed my photography. I've always thought that Photo.net was aimed more at cameras and equipment than actual photography.</p>

[Julie H]

<p>Tim, nah, not the 60s, though I don't think that time was quite as ridiculous as cynics make it out to have been. Cynics don't find much beauty in this world. To an open mind, on the other hand:</p>

 

<blockquote>

<p>Multitude stands in my mind but I think that the ocean in the bone vault is only<br>

The bone vault’s ocean: out there is the ocean’s;<br>

The water is the water, the cliff is the rock, come shocks and flashes of reality. The mind<br>

Passes, the eye closes, the spirit is a passage;<br>

The beauty of things was born before eyes and sufficient to itself; the heart-breaking beauty<br>

Will remain when there is no heart to break for it. — <em>from</em> Credo by <em>Robinson Jeffers</em></p>

</blockquote>

[DickArnold]

There is a cadre of experienced wedding photographers on PN that have been of immeasurable help to wedding

photographers and in fact that is going on right now in that forum, here. Some of those professionals are working with a new to the business wedding photographer and the help they are providing is a great help to her by her own admission.

[Tim_Lookingbill]

<p>Ok, Julie, you're clearly from another planet. Can I visit sometime and how do you get there and is there a way out? :)</p>

<p>What does "the ocean in the bone vault" mean? Around the early '70's did you happen to catch the PBS broadcast of "Between Time and Timbuktu"? </p>

<p>That poem reminds me of what my 10 year old mind felt like after watching that play.</p>

[Julie H]

<p>bone vault = skull</p>

<p>No, didn't see that show.</p>

[q.g._de_bakker]

<i>"Cynics don't find much beauty in this world."</i><br>Almost paradoxically, that is a quite cynical yet wrong dismissal of cynicism, which (cynicism) itself does indeed find much beauty in the world (much more than non-cynics do), though not that 'beauty' other people declare as such and insist everyone (cynics and non-cynics alike) too must find beautiful. Having an "open mind" means being a cynic, appreciate things for what they are and not for what someone else says it supposedly is.<br>The paradox lies more in the fact that cynicism tends not to be as wrong as this cynical dismissal of cynicism, and not in how it is a cynical dismissal of cynicism.

[bob_bill]

<p>David, No offense taken. What I said was "membership" doesn't offer me much in the way of benefits that I would use, not that the site doesn't have the numerous benefits I have enumerated. No contradiction. I don't know what the organizers earn, that's their business, but I do like to contribute to the financial support of the site, so sponsorship is how I do it, at the same time encouraging folks that show desire and the posting and photo eval could be helpful to them. I have no desire to post photos as I seek evaluation from other pros that understand my work and whose opinions I respect. </p>

[Landrum Kelly]

<p>I came to Photo.net in the fall of 1999, but I finally joined in late December, 2001. I got my first digital camera and thus started doing my own processing for the first time a very few weeks later, starting in early February, 2002.</p>

<p>I almost cannot imagine what direction I might have gone without Photo.net. Although I had been shooting SLRs since 1977, I have a learned a great deal here--and I have been inspired many times to try something different--and more ambitious.</p>

<p>I doubt that there have been a half-dozen days since early 2002 that I have not logged onto the site. It has been my most constant companion now for fourteen years. I feel like I am married to the site. If it went under, I don't quite know what I would do.</p>

<p>--Lannie</p>

[DavidTriplett]

<p>I'm the new guy, I guess. PNet is my first exploration of sharing my photography with others and seeking critiques. I could never afford to do as much film as I would have liked, and as was necessary to truly develop my knowledge and skills, and so my experience and abilities have grown enormously since acquiring my first DSLR in late 2012. PNet has allowed me to share my experiences with even newer photographers, from the perspective of a recent newby, while allowing me to rub elbows with more experienced and knowledgeable photographers. Ask me this question in a year, and I might have a more specific answer. For now, I am learning the value of attention to detail, and to trust my instincts. I am sincerely grateful to everyone who takes the time to share their insights, even when I don't agree with them.</p>

[Trigger_Happy]

<p>It probably has in some way but it's to early to call at this point. I just wanted to say that I love the "No Words" forum! It is just perfect if I'm seeking inspiration. Thank you for that!<br>

It has already inspired me for photos I would not have taken without it!</p>

[RaymondC]

<p>Not much for me, I hardly contribute to the new equipment announcements now. <br>

When I began photography as a hobby in 03 and probably joined this site within a year I was excited with each and every product announcement, I used to print the Nikon dSLR brochures out and the lens catalogues but not now and I have since recycled those. I don't doubt the improvements but after they are taken, prepped up and submitted to the camera club better equipment does very little. I had my D70 for about 10yrs and then I got a D600 but I pretty much only have AF-D lenses apart from a 70-200 AFS F4 b/c the 80-200/2.8D for whatever reason didn't work that well on my D70 or my used bought D2h which I sold later on for a bit more than I paid for it. I did send it in for a check but came back fine, perhaps as I have been told the calibration was within spec but maybe the D70 and that lens was just at the edges of acceptability that when combined pushed out it? </p>

<p>These days I am shooting more film, got into b/w processing not yet the printing. Sorta thinking whether I should give up color slides and just use color on digital or perhaps depart color film from dSLRs and go the medium format way. To me it is more about the image than having all the best equipment or the best IQ on file. At the end of the day money spent on equip is less elsewhere. I rather be able to go to new places and photograph than to spend on equipment. </p>

<p>Kind of wished I got into photograph more in the film era. Every time I go to the library I prefer those older books. </p>