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In Perspective, Planet: Fahim, I feel very discouraged

fahim mohammed

fahim mohammed

Well-known member
Why?
I posted this in a forum..

p843897245-4.jpg

They said the horizon was tilted and the sky was too big. The buildings should not be in the center.
What did you tell them?
That the horizon is not straight. If it was they would fall off.
The sky is really big. They would not believe it.
Why should the buildings not be centered? They said it was some rule. Not good photography.

Then I posted another photo..

p928792555-4.jpg

They said it was unreal. The colors were wrong. The exposure was wrong. The framing was wrong.
What did you reply?
I said this is how wanted others to see it. That was how I felt. This is how I like it to be seen.

And?

I posted this one. Fahim, you have seen this one before..

p1070354000.jpg

Well, what happened here?

They said there were no buildings. That the sky was too bright. That I should include people in my photographs. That I should watch my histograms.

What did you reply?

I told them to f*k off.
 
Doug Kerr

Doug Kerr

Well-known member
Hi, Fahim,

Lovely works.

On the red pencil front, I believe you have mis-spelled "f**k". (Although, perhaps you were following the Microsoft syntactic convention for "*".)

Best regards,

Doug
 
B

Ben Rubinstein

pro member
haha hillarious!

I had a friend who once posted up Cartier Bressons famous picture of a moving bike at the bottom of a staircase as his own on a forum. It was criticised for showing movement, for the sloppy composure, for the exposure until belatedly one person cottoned on!

Mike Johnson a few years ago made a blog post showing some of the most famous photographs of all time and then ripped them to pieces in the style of forum wannabees. It was funny while a sad indictment of the nonsense spouted at critique by so many on forums.

I'll critique your 3 photographs from an art perspective rather than those who would like their photographs to look as clinical as robotic art.

1) What a wonderful feeling of space, the curve of the waterside as the image manouvers over to the right has a wonderfully slow and gentle feel to it culminating in that white boat and only half the bridge which does indeed elevate this image from the usual tourist shots. My only criticism would be a touch more open shadows in the buildings and perhaps clone out that curved line in the middle of the clouds? Only if you can be bothered though. The saturation is spot on perfect for this image!

2) Who said the rule of thirds is a boring photographic rule? Sometimes it is just what an image needs to be perfect and the use of that plus the curve in of the leaf and the curve of the puddle, added with the greenery at the top is about as perfect a composition as can be possible. The saturation is perhaps a drop too high for my tastes but it is consistent with your general style and if I prefer a more realistic rendition then that is my problem not that of what your vision consists of. I preferred Provia to Velvia back in the day but that didn't make the Velvia look any less valid.

3) Utterly breathtaking and don't you dare pull back any more detail in the sky, space is definied by composition and this image is more than perfect. The stark of the white and the shimmer as it meets the sand envokes exactly the right feel for these tracks leading seemingly to nowhere. Just to imagine this print with a luscious wide black matt sends shivers down my spine. Wonderfully evocative. I keep scrolling up and back to it. Let me know if you ever offer prints of it.

Fahim, I've seen your travel stuff and it's been fun. Now I'm seeing your fine art work and am very impressed. F**K the armchair critics who couldn't recognise or indeed invoke an emotion if you threatened them at gunpoint.
 
Doug Kerr

Doug Kerr

Well-known member
Hi, Ben,

Ben Rubinstein said:
haha hillarious!

I had a friend who once posted up Cartier Bressons famous picture of a moving bike at the bottom of a staircase as his own on a forum. It was criticised for showing movement, for the sloppy composure, for the exposure until belatedly one person cottoned on!

Mike Johnson a few years ago made a blog post showing some of the most famous photographs of all time and then ripped them to pieces in the style of forum wannabees. It was funny while a sad indictment of the nonsense spouted at critique by so many on forums.

I'll critique your 3 photographs from an art perspective rather than those who would like their photographs to look as clinical as robotic art.

1) What a wonderful feeling of space, the curve of the waterside as the image manouvers over to the right has a wonderfully slow and gentle feel to it culminating in that white boat and only half the bridge which does indeed elevate this image from the usual tourist shots. My only criticism would be a touch more open shadows in the buildings and perhaps clone out that curved line in the middle of the clouds? Only if you can be bothered though. The saturation is spot on perfect for this image!

2) Who said the rule of thirds is a boring photographic rule? Sometimes it is just what an image needs to be perfect and the use of that plus the curve in of the leaf and the curve of the puddle, added with the greenery at the top is about as perfect a composition as can be possible. The saturation is perhaps a drop too high for my tastes but it is consistent with your general style and if I prefer a more realistic rendition then that is my problem not that of what your vision consists of. I preferred Provia to Velvia back in the day but that didn't make the Velvia look any less valid.

3) Utterly breathtaking and don't you dare pull back any more detail in the sky, space is definied by composition and this image is more than perfect. The stark of the white and the shimmer as it meets the sand envokes exactly the right feel for these tracks leading seemingly to nowhere. Just to imagine this print with a luscious wide black matt sends shivers down my spine. Wonderfully evocative. I keep scrolling up and back to it. Let me know if you ever offer prints of it.

Fahim, I've seen your travel stuff and it's been fun. Now I'm seeing your fine art work and am very impressed. F**K the armchair critics who couldn't recognise or indeed invoke an emotion if you threatened them at gunpoint.
Click to expand...
Well said.

Best regards,

Doug
 
Asher Kelman

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Ben,

An excellent critique. You're good! Now you have no excuse!


Fahim,

Your pictures are appreciated as also the humor. My apologies for the software limiting your expressive ****ing! There's a weird fellow with a spyglass and so we hide things from him.

Asher
 
Doug Kerr

Doug Kerr

Well-known member
The Modern Art Museum of Calquier

Sometimes we have the opportunity to critique critique itself (even, or perhaps I might say especially, here).

A friend and former colleague, John Swiney Morgan (when I was president of DeVry Institute of Technology at Dallas, he was dean of the Technology Certificate division), is now (among other things) the director of a virtual art museum, The Modern Art Museum of Calquier. You can visit it here:

http://drswiney.org/calquier/museum.html

One of its most endearing features is its wonderful parody of the descriptions of art works we often see in exhibit catalogs.

The collections include an extensive retrospective of John's own works.

John's museum is well-known in art circles. He tells me that he frequently receives solicitations from providers of such things as museum security services, artwork lighting, and so forth.

Best regards,

Doug
 
fahim mohammed

fahim mohammed

Well-known member
Seems I got the connect back.

Where were we..Yes, important things first.

Doug, I was using the Balinese ' U ' rendition of the vernacular.

Regards.
 
fahim mohammed

fahim mohammed

Well-known member
Doug, Ben, Asher..thank you folk for those encouraging comments.

Ben, I know of your work here and from that other forum ( wink ! ). I respect your talent and what you have produced.

I shall definitely try your valued suggestions.

The Rub' al-Khali photo hangs on my wall as is.!!

My sincere appreciation to you all.
 
fahim mohammed

fahim mohammed

Well-known member
Doug Kerr said:
Sometimes we have the opportunity to critique critique itself (even, or perhaps I might say especially, here).

A friend and former colleague, John Swiney Morgan (when I was president of DeVry Institute of Technology at Dallas, he was dean of the Technology Certificate division), is now (among other things) the director of a virtual art museum, The Modern Art Museum of Calquier. You can visit it here:

http://drswiney.org/calquier/museum.html

One of its most endearing features is its wonderful parody of the descriptions of art works we often see in exhibit catalogs.

The collections include an extensive retrospective of John's own works.

John's museum is well-known in art circles. He tells me that he frequently receives solicitations from providers of such things as museum security services, artwork lighting, and so forth.
Best regards,

Doug
Click to expand...

Brilliant! Doug.

Regards.
 
fahim mohammed

fahim mohammed

Well-known member
Asher Kelman said:
Ben,

An excellent critique. You're good! Now you have no excuse!


Fahim,

Your pictures are appreciated as also the humor. My apologies for the software limiting your expressive ****ing! There's a weird fellow with a spyglass and so we hide things from him.

Asher
Click to expand...

Asher, I am informed by my youngest that internet chat has its own lingo for those to whom the English language seems limiting..for whatever reason.

Regards.
 
Asher Kelman

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Doug Kerr said:
Sometimes we have the opportunity to critique critique itself (even, or perhaps I might say especially, here).

A friend and former colleague, John Swiney Morgan (when I was president of DeVry Institute of Technology at Dallas, he was dean of the Technology Certificate division), is now (among other things) the director of a virtual art museum, The Modern Art Museum of Calquier. You can visit it here:

http://drswiney.org/calquier/museum.html
Click to expand...



paula-4.jpg


John Swiney Morgan: Paula #4

circa 2001, A John S. Morgan Retrospective

The Modern Art Museum of Calquier, Texas​

According to the artist, "Works in the Paula series are never framed. A frame would only isolate the viewer from the wall; the Paula paintings identify with the wall. It is no accident that the painting is seen on a brick wall. Don't you think the resulting experience is more like a wall on a wall rather than a painting on a wall? Have we not left the realm of assertiveness and physicality and entered into an emotional and metaphysical ethereal experience?"

To which I'd reply that this is, I'm afraid to say, "certainly assertive, almost purely physical except for being aggressively pretentious" and that's that for me, except for the obvious humor of the effort!

Kudos for that!

Asher
 
Jerome Marot

Jerome Marot

Well-known member
fahim mohammed said:
They said the horizon was tilted and the sky was too big. The buildings should not be in the center.
What did you tell them?
That the horizon is not straight. If it was they would fall off.
The sky is really big. They would not believe it.
Why should the buildings not be centered? They said it was some rule. Not good photography.

They said it was unreal. The colors were wrong. The exposure was wrong. The framing was wrong.
What did you reply?
I said this is how wanted others to see it. That was how I felt. This is how I like it to be seen.

They said there were no buildings. That the sky was too bright. That I should include people in my photographs. That I should watch my histograms.
Click to expand...

Let me put it this way: if you get lots of comments on your pictures, either positive or negative, it means that they have attracted the attention of many people. It is better than not getting any comment at all, I suppose.
 
Charlotte Thompson

Charlotte Thompson

Well-known member
Fahim

I think all artists go through this kind of thing- it either but most always changes you-
you do what you need to do
be "you"
everything else will fall into place-

Charlotte-

ps- I for one always look forward to your work!
 
J

Joachim Bolte

New member
As said before, why did you choose to put your pictures on a site about photography if you don't want technical critique on them? The comments are mostly about taste, wrapped up in a technical excuse. I agree with some of them, and disagree with some too.

Some people will say that critique doesn't matter when you like the picture, but I think they are missing te point that you DID post them publically. So one way or the other, you do not do so for yourself. You want to show those pictures to an audience. And that audience, you can choose.

So ask yourself, why did you choose the audience you did? Is it the good one? and if it is, is their opinion important enough to change the way you do things?
 
fahim mohammed

fahim mohammed

Well-known member
Joachim Bolte said:
As said before, why did you choose to put your pictures on a site about photography if you don't want technical critique on them? The comments are mostly about taste, wrapped up in a technical excuse. I agree with some of them, and disagree with some too.

Some people will say that critique doesn't matter when you like the picture, but I think they are missing te point that you DID post them publically. So one way or the other, you do not do so for yourself. You want to show those pictures to an audience. And that audience, you can choose.

So ask yourself, why did you choose the audience you did? Is it the good one? and if it is, is their opinion important enough to change the way you do things?
Click to expand...

Thanks for your comments.

I have since stopped posting on that forum.

Nobody's opinion is important enough and valid enough to change the way I do my photography.

However, there are a few people whose opinions I respect greatly that are ( to me ) important, usually valid, and sincere enough for me to pay serious attention to.
Not to change my way of doing photography, but to improve the way I do my kind of photography. And improve my resulting images.

Kindest regards.
 
E

Edward Bussa

Member
Where's that darn Like button when you want it? I think these last two comments sum up my own thoughts on this thread pretty well.

I wish there were more "appreciators" of photography or visual art in general on the web. Most of the audiences on the web are peer groups. I guess each image has its own specific audience and thats what the whole gallery/curator/advertising system is setup to accomplish; help each image find its specific audience...
 
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