Flowing Ice

[sdwilsonsct]

Nicely done.

Mike.

+1. Quite a difference.
Scott

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

... Slobodan, you mean you wouldn't know to use the 'rule' from instinct unless it had an official name hung onto it?

Rob, I agree you can't teach someone talent, but you cripple a lot of talent by not teaching them how best to use it and develop it.

Every significant artist I can think of (with the exception of initial naive artists) went to school. Enough said. Michelangelo and Leonardo, Monet and Picasso. Academic school or apprenticeship. And please do not tell me all they learned there was how to mix colors and select brushes.

Teaching can be by someone else, or learning by self-study. You can learn "official names" for various techniques and rules, or you can observe what others did (as in your case) and copy it, consciously or subconsciously. But learning you did. However, someone telling you a thing or two along the way will speed up the process.

Teaching talent will help them turn into masters, artists and trailblazers. Teaching talentless people (like myself) won't get them there, but it will make them better photographers today than they were yesterday. Enough to make us happy, if not famous.

[popnfresh]

To use Law as an example is almost a laugh: dear God, it's all about money and whom you can afford to hire, and then retain, and for how long. Look at all of those high-profile cases that hit tv and the evidence screams at you. Law's just another ass for hire. I hired a lawyer to fight for me once; never again.

You're confusing the concept of law with the legal system. I have to assume that you're not advocating getting rid of laws themselves. The only reason we have any laws at all is because of opinions. If I steal your camera, for example, it's a crime, in society's opinion, therefore we have a law against it. Similarly, there used to be reams of so-called "blue laws" in the USA that prohibited all sorts of activities, usually because they were biblical prohibitions. At one time it was illegal to kiss your wife on a Sunday in the state of Connecticut. The law existed because in the opinion of society at the time, it was objectionable. Eventually society's opinion changed and they repealed the law. So opinions are important. Without opinions there can be no art and no civilization. Everyone has opinions and everyone is a critic. The artist has to pick through all of it and decide at the end of the day which opinions, in their opinion, are helpful and which aren't. And if they're very good their work will resonate with the public, because in their opinion it's great art.

So I wouldn't be too quick to condemn the process of asking for and delivering critiques of photographs here on LL. No one's opinion is sacred, and opinions are changing all the time, but opinions are still very important.

[Rob C]

You're confusing the concept of law with the legal system. I have to assume that you're not advocating getting rid of laws themselves. The only reason we have any laws at all is because of opinions. If I steal your camera, for example, it's a crime, in society's opinion, therefore we have a law against it. Similarly, there used to be reams of so-called "blue laws" in the USA that prohibited all sorts of activities, usually because they were biblical prohibitions. At one time it was illegal to kiss your wife on a Sunday in the state of Connecticut. The law existed because in the opinion of society at the time, it was objectionable. Eventually society's opinion changed and they repealed the law. So opinions are important. Without opinions there can be no art and no civilization. Everyone has opinions and everyone is a critic. The artist has to pick through all of it and decide at the end of the day which opinions, in their opinion, are helpful and which aren't. And if they're very good their work will resonate with the public, because in their opinion it's great art.

So I wouldn't be too quick to condemn the process of asking for and delivering critiques of photographs here on LL. No one's opinion is sacred, and opinions are changing all the time, but opinions are still very important.

Now we have something we can agree upon! And that's the subjectivity of them all. At this point, I must let it go; the old dog's teeth aren't that firmly embedded any more.

;-)

Rob C

[Boti]

Teaching talent will help them turn into masters, artists and trailblazers. Teaching talentless people (like myself) won't get them there, but it will make them better photographers today than they were yesterday. Enough to make us happy, if not famous.

Well said.

So I wouldn't be too quick to condemn the process of asking for and delivering critiques of photographs here on LL. No one's opinion is sacred, and opinions are changing all the time, but opinions are still very important.

Well said this too.

Boti