portraits Life Lesson No. 5 - NEVER Let Your Guard Down in Front of a Camera!

I warned her...hehe

 

Constructive comments welcome. Thank you!

 

--Ryan

Constructive? Were you being constructive when you took this picture? Or when you posted it? The nicest and most constructive thing I can say is that this is the archetypical flash-on-camera ill-timed snapshot with busy background and mediocre processing. I'd suggest you remove it and substitute a picture in which you're actually trying to make your friend look good. Life Lesson No. 6--don't futz around with girls. They talk to each other, y'know . . .

Thank you, Charles, for your honest feedback. All I can say in return is that there is a reason I posted this in the "humor" category. IMHO, one must always carry a sense of humor in everything. This shot was not meant to be serious in any way. Quite frankly, I'd go nuts if I had to be serious all the time. And I'd be willing to bet that somewhere, someone has made fine art out of such grimaces. I was merely thinking outside the box. We just disagree is all :-)

 

Again, thank you for honest feedback. It's the only good kind!

 

--Ryan

I have taken a few images along the same genre. This is a fun concept. This particular image is a little over exposed from my monitor.

I understand why you find this funny, Ryan, but not why you were asking for constructive comments. If the point is that this is a bad picture, what point is there in making it less bad? And contrariwise, if you didn't really want to make it better, why did you post it?

The snippit about constructive comments is a habit. I post it in each and every one of my critique requests. I probably should not have included it in this one.

 

For a change, I wanted to post something in a category I rarely post to. I wouldn't consider myself so open-minded if I only critiqued portraits, or if I only submitted to landscapes. I am still very young, and I am still exploring all of the various aspects of photography. I will never learn where my photographic strengths truly are unless I stray from the path and look for something different. If you don't like it, that's fine. Maybe humor isn't my thing. I was looking for a shot that spoke "humor" and this one spoke to me. Aesthetically, it may not be that great. Originality, maybe decent at best. I can take one of two steps from here. 1) Try to better express humor and dive deeper into the category, or 2) understand that this type of photography may not be my thing.

 

Furthermore, I do not post critique requests to defend my work, and right now I feel like I'm defending why I posted it. This is a first. I've seen images on this site that average 3's and 4's, with criticizing comments, I don't believe I have ever seen a suggestion to "remove it" or ask why they posted it to begin with. No one should have to defend why they post. They post because they want to share their work. They post because they want honest opinions. And again, I thank you for yours.