Category Archives: Ideas

Commentary, Ideas

A Difficult Question, and Thinking About Feedback

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There is a lot to say about the subject of feedback – what constitutes useful feedback, when it is and is not appropriate to offer it, when to be “direct” and when to be diplomatic, how to offer it, and so forth. I’m thinking about this today – though I think about it often – after a thought-provoking experience I had yesterday.

Yesterday I visited Charles Cramer’s beautiful solo show at the Center for Photographic Art in Carmel – for the third time! I made a point of dropping in one more time because a) this was the final day of the show, b) I’m a huge fan of Charlie’s work, c) I knew that he would be there in the afternoon, and d) it gave me a perfect excuse to photograph on the Monterey Peninsula yesterday before and after visiting the show!

Charlie asked several of us two questions – one merely difficult and the other very difficult. The former, merely difficult question was, more or less, “Which are your favorites?” This wasn’t too difficult, since there are some very specific photographs in this show that “speak” to me very powerfully. In fact, I basically responded to this question by pointing those out and trying (with varying levels of success) to say something about what makes those photographs “work” for me. But there are so many that work in so many different ways that I could really do the question justice. Some work “as photographs” alone, there are others that I probably see differently because of my affinity for the subjects, some require some time to understand, and so forth.

But the second question was the really tough one: “Which photograph(s) would you leave out of the exhibit?” Really? You are asking me, Charlie? :-)

But then I thought about this a bit more and decided to attempt an answer. I’m not going to write about which photographs I would leave out – frankly I would add more of his photographs rather than removing any – since my selections are not the point. But I do want to think out loud a bit more about the question and the value of asking it and trying to answer. Continue reading A Difficult Question, and Thinking About Feedback →

Community, Ideas, Photographers

Help Michael Frye Decide – His “Best of 2010” Photographs

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Michael Frye has borrowed – with my blessings! – my idea of asking readers, photographers, and photography fans to help with the process of determining which photographs should end up in his “Best of 2010” list.

I did something similar when coming up with my 2010 Favorites list – I asked readers to give me their feedback on which of my photographs spoke to them, and I used that feedback to edit the list down a bit and then to determine the order in which the photos would be posted. Michael has set a more difficult task for his readers. Out of his large selection of very wonderful photographs – at least a couple of which have “iconic” potential – he wants to end up with a list of his best 10.

Wander on over there and take a look at his wonderful collection of photographs – and good luck trying to limit yourself to only 10! I took a look earlier today, realized it was going to be too difficult to eliminate that many in order to come up with a small list, and decided to come back later. While you are visiting his site, be sure to poke around a bit. There is a lot of other great stuff there. In addition to his photography, I recommend looking at his reviews of readers’ photographs and at his “how to” videos.

While I have your attention, I want to echo one thing that Michael wrote in his post: “… the judge—me—gets a say too, so if one of my favorites gets panned by everyone else I may still include it. But as one of my photographer friends, Clinton Smith, once said, we don’t get to pick our best images—the world does. So your votes will carry a lot of weight.”

Like Michael, I did “get the final say,” but I strongly agree that we are often the least able to judge the potential success of our photographs. Sometimes I know that a photograph will communicate with others, but very often (more often, perhaps?) I am surprised by the positive feedback I get on a photograph that wasn’t necessarily one of my very favorites and by the fact that my favorites are often not the ones that speak to others. I had to swallow hard and remove a couple from my initial “favorites” list when they didn’t get much response – but I am always very interested to see what the reactions are, and I learned a lot by considering your votes and reading your comments. (My own personal favorite among my photographs was not selected as the “readers’ favorite,” but I was relieved to see that it at least did pretty well! :-)

Commentary, Community, Ideas, News, Site News

Jim M. Goldstein’s “Best Photos of 2010” Project

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Every December Jim M. Goldstein takes on the task of collecting the annual “best of” lists of many photographers. His project started modestly a few years back, picked up steam quickly… and I can only imagine the huge number of entries he is fielding this year! You can get more information about Jim’s project in a post at his blog. There is still time to put together your list and submit it.

My own “2010 Favorites” page is nearing completion, and I hope to post it later this evening. This year I tried something new – I invited readers to chime in with their feedback on my initial list of over 50 photographs. The response was wonderful and I’m very grateful to participants for their very kind words about my photography and for the time they took to look carefully through a much too large set of images and then post helpful lists and comments.

Commentary, Ideas, Tongue in Cheek

Regarding Sharpness. And Obsession.

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We have all seen the lengthy discussions about “which lens is sharpest.” While the ability of a lens to resolve detail is certainly important, it is not the only thing that is important. And in many cases, knowing which is the sharpest lens is not as important as know which among a number of sharp alternatives best suits your needs. I stumbled into another discussion of this topic online today and posted the following as my contribution. (Slightly edited here from the original post.)

Folks sometimes allow themselves to become completely distracted by “sharpness” to the point that they overlook a whole bunch of other important issues in their quest to find the holy grail of “sharp.” This can become the equivalent to realizing that good tires are important on a car, and then deciding to buy a particular car because it comes with the “best” tires… but is too big to fit in your garage, costs twice your annual income, has a terrible repair record, needs a tune-up every 750 miles, and only comes in a color your spouse hates.

For a few people doing certain types of very critical work, printing very large, working slowly and methodically, and willing to forego the compensatory advantages of other lens options, lenses like the excellent TS models, lenses from another manufacturer that only work with adapters, classic primes, and so forth might make some sense.

But just because a lens might measure a bit better to some extent in one of the areas that is measurable (e. g. “sharpness”), it does not necessarily follow that it is a better lens, nor that alternatives that may measure differently in sharpness – but are very nearly as good – will not also be excellent performers. It is also not true that these specialized lenses are required to produce large and effective prints.

It is interesting to watch people go through a process that may look something like the following at times, as they…

1. decide they need a sharper kens.
2. research lens sharpness.
3. consider only sharpness and overlook or dismiss other issues, including those mentioned in the sources analyzing sharpness.
4. decide that some lens is the “sharpest” – frequently some expensive prime, the most expensive zoom they can find, an alternative brand, a specialized TS, etc.
4.5. lust after said lens for some period. The excitement builds…
5. purchase the aforementioned Really Really Sharp Lens.
6. use the new lens and glory in it’s pure Divinely Sharp Wonderfulness, thereby confirming their wise choice.
7. share their wonder with others.
8. make more photographs, and eventually come to find out that a) in real photography the sharpness difference is rarely visible, b) there are downsides to using the sharper lens, c) the downsides sometimes compromise or lose the shot, and d) in many cases their previous “less sharp” lens proves just as useful and effective.
9. note that the new super Super Lens, while useful, begins to spend more time in the bag, and…
10. learn an important lesson or two about Lens Lust… or else repeat the cycle with a different WonderLens. :-)

To be clear, I’m not suggesting that sharpness is unimportant. I’m just encouraging people to keep things in perspective.

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