Mt Foch in Sepia

I welcome all comments, but I'm really just posting this for your

enjoyment. I'm sure it will collect it's share of double-3's from

people who's keyboards are perhaps broken such that the other numbers

no longer work, or perhaps they've just fallen asleep on the "3"

button, and right now drool is trickling across their keyboards, and

the numeric keypad is embossing itself into their cheek. Ah well.

Enjoy!

I hear you on that one. lol ... I think many of us share that same sentiment. I'm fairly sure that there are a goodly percentage of members here who simply want to trash the work of others via the rating system, because they never leave comments to explain, which is gutless. That's why I hold those ratings suspect. That's the unfortunate part of the rating system. Also, I feel there should be no anonymous rating.

 

That said, this is a handsome and commanding photo and one you should be proud of. Great composition, perfect reflection, just the right amount of sepia -- beautiful.

 

Regards,

Maria

In the main, I completely agree with you about the rating system. Now, having set that aside; let's look at your photograph. Your post-processing is great; I like the sepia toning; and the details are terrific. The composition, in my opinion is ambiguous. I wish you'd picked a tree to include; left side or right side. I think my preference would have been a shift to the right side include the trees over there and the mountains off in the distance; and the lion's share of the reflection. You see what I'm going for here? Sometimes it is really hard to be King Solomon and split the baby - just go ahead and make a shift one side or the other and settle on a composition that makes it pop. Keep up the good work, Scott! Cheers! Chris

 

P.S. I just took a look at your landscapes; your work is rock-solid. I hope you understand that my suggestions are...well, just that. C

Thank you both, Chris and Maria, for taking the time to provide your comments. I hope my comments on the double-3's didn't sound angry. I truly don't care about the ratings my photos receive. I've seen some amazing custom digital art productions, where dozens of photos were combined to create an amazingly unique composition, which then received a 3 for originality. I personally find the number of views a photo received to be a lot more telling of it's perceived quality than the rating system.

 

Thanks for your suggestions, Chris, on picking a tree versus including both. In retrospect, I think what made me include both was the island in the distance. I wanted the entirety of the island to be included, and to accomplish that without including the left tree, I would have ended up with the right tree blocking (or nearly blocking) the most interesting part of the mountain. Also, you don't have to worry about how I'll take your suggestions. You have an awesome portfolio, so I have a lot of respect for your opinions. I also recognize, that like any other artform, some pictures will greatly appeal to some people, and fall completely flat for other people, and that often has more to do with the person than the picture. As much as we can agonize over these things, in reality, we're just talking about pictures here. I made the decision a while ago that I'm doing this for me, and I'm posting what I like, and if others enjoy it too, that's great, and if I become a better photographer along the way, that's even better.

 

Thanks again,

Scott.

Yes ... what Chris said! :)

 

Listen though, no one does art just for himself, not on this site anyway. If you did art only for yourself, you wouldn't be posting even one photo here -- not one -- and you wouldn't show your photos to anyone ever. So don't go down that road. There is no purpose, per se, for doing art for oneself because art is communication and one doesn't communicate with himself only all day.

 

Some critiques here are great and some are not. It is up to you to decide which are useful and which are not. The same goes for ratings. By the way, you SHOULD be angry about the ratings system!

 

I've posted photos that I personally liked an awful lot, which have gone unnoticed; and I've also posted photos I wasn't so sure about, which were extremely well received. So the activity of receiving critiques broadened my perspective a lot. I'm sure you'll find the collaboration with the right members to be quite helpful.

 

Maria

Hey Maria. What I meant by "I'm doing this for me" is that I'm going to produce the photos that I enjoy, and that are meaningful to me. I don't want to be second guessing myself when I'm out shooting, wondering if the shot I'm taking is going to be popular on photo.net, or wondering what shot I should take that would be popular on photo.net. It's great if others find enjoyment in my photos, but that's not my goal. If I make that my goal, then I become market-driven, and that approach will surely stifle my creativity. I want to be driven by my own creative vision, and only by that. Only then can I have true creative freedom. Cheers, Scott.

Hey Scott, thanks for clarifying. I'm in agreement with you too. The last thing we need is more market-driven "art". :) Regards, Maria

Yeah... you can say that again! I really don't think I need "S E R E N I T Y" written in big letters across the top of a shot like this one (a la Successories). I would hope that people will find it serene without me hitting them over the head with it! Cheers, Scott.