Sunday, November 16, 2008

Sorry to scare you

Someone at church mentioned she'd seen one of my posts I have since deleted. She said, "Man, you were scary!" hahaha. Sorry, JoAnne, didn't mean to be scary!

I didn't mean to come off as scary, I just was making a post to put more resolve into my decision and to shout it out loud.

See, I guess if you didn't know my past history as well as some people (Gina) do, then you wouldn't know why that post was made the way it was. When I first started photography I was introduced to a website for photographers where a LOT of new photographers were trying to figure their cameras and techniques out. We would get critique on our work all the time, and most of it was the same.... It has grain, it has blown parts, too much shadow, not sharp enough, too much contrast, "it's not perfect", in essence is all people would hear, and would critique other people's work on the same stuff... they were like robots running around regurgitating the same nonsense. UNLESS, of course you were one of the more popular photographers and if you had any of that in your images why then you were a freaking genius! And all that stuff was really great on your images.
Poor Gina, who follows a couple of people who are in photography and on that board even got sucked into making those types of critiques. But I'm working on her to following me in giving them up! Live outside the box, Gina, we can do it, it's safe out there :)
I've been following several other photographers who's work I really admire. Some are local and some are on a wedding photographer's board that I'm on. It occurred to me recently that many of their images that I absolutely love, however if it had been my image, I would have discarded it simply because of that boxed thoughts I'd been put into from the other board. Some of those reasons would be that their faces couldn't be clearly seen, parts are clipping (too white or too black where no texture can be seen), the horizon is tilted, something about the rule of thirds, blurred image, etc. Who wrote these rules anyway? Stupid. And I'm not going to listen to them anymore.
I just want to shoot and edit how I want, not how people expect me to. I mean, it's not like I'm trying to control my clients, they are free to buy or not, I'm just trying to free myself from invisible restrictions.
So sorry for scaring anyone. It's all good now :)

2 comments:

Ginabear said...

Well I didnt think you sounded scary just determined to talk yourself out of the box. I see nothing wrong with thinkin outside of it, might be scary at first but thats what makes you an original. People like difference, not the same cookie cutter stuff all the time. Yah I know, I'm sorry I went along with it all and didnt encourage you like I should have. This is me trying though :) I am proud of you for thinking for yourself. You are an amazing photographer and I cant wait to see your "out of the box" work! Love ya babe!

Michelle said...

You do what works for you. You're bound to find people who think you're crazy, but hey, if you don't love what you do, you'll stop doing it. And the world will be short one amazing photographer. I say "YOU GO GIRL!" and have a party!

BTW, I kicked a box, just for you. Bad boxes!