ku # 908 ~ photographers (that means you) should write more
Tuesday, May 3, 2011 at 12:43AM 
Shoreline below The Flume ~ West Branch of the Au Sable River / Wilmington, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggenIt's Tuesday and here I am in Albany once again. This time I am here with the wife while she attends yet another conference.
My initial plan was to spend the day on a golf course but the weather seems to have other ideas. Plan B, which is to spend a lot of time walking the downtown streets of Albany with the intent of making pictures would seem to be the order of the day. In fact, Plan B was edging out Plan A even before the weather intervened.
In any event, before I head out I thought I would leave you with this link for your consideration. The linked piece is another followup to the ongoing derivative / cliche / what's-next discussion - not that it's been much of a discussion so far.
Speaking of discussions, aka: leaving comments, perhaps reading this article might be of some help and/or encouragement.
In any event, I would be very curious about any opinions regarding my pictures relative to the derivative / cliche / what's-next idea. IYO, does any of my work fall into the predictable FA&D genres or any of the Oeuvres Aspiring Photographers Should Ignore categories?
Reader Comments (4)
My opinion is that you SHOULD ignore categories. You clearly feel the need to express yourself as you do and you DO provide something quite different as far as I am concerned; I'm sure that you have some idea of your audience anyway so that can't be much of a surprise. What do categories matter anyway? Whether or not your work fits into a particular pigeon hole or not is not the point, what you do for me is to provide inspiration and I can still see some of your images in my mind's eye from a couple of years ago.
With respect to writing, I would agree with the article and it is something that has been on my mind about myself. I'm just not very good about about doing it and I must try harder, especially with leaving comments! I think as well though, that it's all too easy in "arty" circles to exclude some people because they aren't familiar/competent with the "right sort of talk" despite that fact that they might have valid points of view. I guess you have to consider what and who you want to encourage.
Curiousity killed the cat, so they say. I have enjoyed reading your thoughts about "pretty pictures" and seeing. That said, IMHO, your writing is much more interesting than your pictures.
In short, I find a lot of value in your photos and text. Your photos and perhaps moreso your writing have been a positive influence on my photography (humble that it is).
There are a lot of good attributes in both your photos and text. Most importantly your passion and commitment shine through. There's nothing flim-flam about your approach.
For such a quality blog as yours, the lack of comments is unfortunate -- for perhaps you and certainly your readers.
Here are possibly two reasons for this:
1. Your photos and text are at a high level(perhaps very high). However, this is counter-balanced by the "everyday" subject matter in your photos (a good thing).
2. Following on from point 1 and compounded by your opinionated nature, most people would think twice about engaging with you [via the blog].
It's interesting how some photoblogs - say Mike Johnston's TOP - garner a huge participation rate. Gordon Lewis' ShutterFinger is similar to yours (good photos + text) but he typically gets a dozen comments per post (but he only posts on a weekly basis).
I think a third reason for the lack of comments is that you don't ask for them -- many of your posts have a "this is my opinion and that's the end of the matter" air about them. And you're not afraid to take pot-shots at commenters which can then alienate other potential commenters.
First of all, I found the OpEd: 10 Oeuvres Aspiring Photographers Should Ignore article depressing... too much about what NOT to do. Give me a break, I'll do what I want.
I have been a pretty active commenter on your blog (perhaps too active?). I find your work (pictures and writing) interesting and high quality. I sometimes do not agree with what you write, but it always makes me challenge my ideas and approaches, and perhaps that is the best compliment I can give you.