Pages: [1] 2 3   Go Down

Author Topic: Arup Biswas  (Read 17253 times)

naturescott49

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 5
Arup Biswas
« on: May 31, 2015, 11:55:21 pm »

For the first time in nearly a decade of reading LuLa articles I find one I can really relate to. Arup Biswas has written a cogent, thoughtful and well-supported essay that offers discrete and immediately usable ideas for improving photography. Congrats to Arup! Now if Alain Briot would only read this and get off his self-righteous high horse (not to say that he doesn't have some good things to say, he's just so full of himself and elitism it's hard to find the wheat among the abundant chaff).
Logged

laughingbear

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 232
Re: Arup Biswas
« Reply #1 on: June 01, 2015, 01:57:12 am »

I share your opinion on the vainglorious Briot marketing prattle that is an inevitable integer part of LuLa since many years.

Hey, they good thing is, no one is forcing you to read it.

As for your praise of Arup Biswas article, I read it, but honestly, I considered this marketing as well.

 




« Last Edit: June 01, 2015, 02:02:03 am by laughingbear »
Logged

mecrox

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 206
    • My Online Portfolio
Re: Arup Biswas
« Reply #2 on: June 01, 2015, 06:50:02 am »

I've found some of Alain Briot's writings extremely helpful. You just need to take the bits you find useful and leave the bits you don't, as with anything. I very much enjoyed Arup Biswas' essay, not only for the lovely images but also for widening the scope of what helps to make a good image. He mentioned meditation and I've found this a productive aid for photography too.
Logged
Mark @ Flickr

Krug

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 246
Re: Arup Biswas
« Reply #3 on: June 01, 2015, 08:06:44 am »

It is sad that in this modern world it would appear often that people who have spent years studying and learning and gaining experience so as to be able to consistently produce excellent work and then take the trouble to try to share their learning and experience are referred to pejoratively as "elitist" by others who have not bothered to go through a similar rigorous process.

Elite performance surely is that for which we should all be striving.


Logged
John Ashbourne
 www.johnashbourne.com

AreBee

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 638
Re: Arup Biswas
« Reply #4 on: June 01, 2015, 08:32:01 am »

Krug,

Quote
Elite performance surely is that for which we should all be striving.

Happiness is a more worthwhile goal.
Logged

stamper

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 5882
Re: Arup Biswas
« Reply #5 on: June 01, 2015, 08:41:45 am »

For the first time in nearly a decade of reading LuLa articles I find one I can really relate to. Arup Biswas has written a cogent, thoughtful and well-supported essay that offers discrete and immediately usable ideas for improving photography. Congrats to Arup! Now if Alain Briot would only read this and get off his self-righteous high horse (not to say that he doesn't have some good things to say, he's just so full of himself and elitism it's hard to find the wheat among the abundant chaff).

Nearly a decade of reading articles and this is your first post to bad mouth a contributor?

Colorado David

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1178
Re: Arup Biswas
« Reply #6 on: June 01, 2015, 09:19:03 am »

Why is it necessary to tear down one contributor to compliment another?

Krug

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 246
Re: Arup Biswas
« Reply #7 on: June 01, 2015, 10:18:25 am »


Of course. Rob, happiness is perhaps the ultimate goal and we all must seek it in whatever ways work best for us personally.

However for me - and maybe for you too - if I set out to do something then doing it as well as I possibly can is what gives most, and best lasting, pleasure and satisfaction.

I agree wholeheartedly with Colorado David in that I cannot understand the need to knock one down in order to praise another. Arup Biswas had interesting views and Alain Briot has provided many essays that I have found valuable over the years. I certainly have not agreed with everything Alain Briot has said. Nor would I expect to with anybody but both of these people made me think - which I guess is what they set out to do.

All grist to the mill - some grist may be more readily 'digestible' but all .... elitist or populist .... may contribute something of value and if one thinks not then it can be politely ignored if one so wishes.

However for some of us there does seem to be rather too much mindless iconoclasm in the art world nowadays ... which is what provoked my somewhat intemperate response.
Logged
John Ashbourne
 www.johnashbourne.com

amolitor

  • Guest
Re: Arup Biswas
« Reply #8 on: June 01, 2015, 11:30:42 am »

Mostly I hate listicles, because mostly they're pointless lists of vague handwaving.

My standard is to read it and ask myself "what concrete thing can I actually put in to action here?" Usually the answer is "wow, nothing. 2000 words and there's literally not one single actionable suggestion here"

For an example, look at Arup's first bullet. There's literally nothing there that you can actually apply.

The other 7 bullets, though, all seem to contain at least one useful suggestion for something you can actually do. Oft-repeated suggestions? Yeah, pretty much. But what the heck, just because it's been said before doesn't mean it's  not worth repeating, and the viewing frame one is one we don't get often enough.

So, 7 out of 8 -- that's world class, in the skeezy world of "N tips to pep up your snaps", well done Arup.
Logged

ndevlin

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 679
    • Follow me on Twitter
Re: Arup Biswas
« Reply #9 on: June 01, 2015, 11:35:51 am »


Boy, these high-paying customers sure are a demanding lot. 

-N.
Logged
Nick Devlin   @onelittlecamera        ww

amolitor

  • Guest
Re: Arup Biswas
« Reply #10 on: June 01, 2015, 11:47:15 am »

Here is the thing.

Yes, we are "product" not customers. But in order to be high quality product that's worth something, we need to be pretty happy. Give us worthless content, unusable web sites, draconian rules, and so on, and we'll simply vote with our feet. 99% of the internet is the husks of collapsed web sites.

So by giving feedback, but expressing what we do and do not like, we help the management. We allow the management to improve the quality of the product they deliver to the advertisers, and we may even help them measure the quality of the product. These forums give advertisers evidence that the "product" is present, and is paying attention. By being engaged, Michael and Kevin show their customers that they are actively working with the "product", the community, to keep the community active, interested, and above all, looking at ads and buying stuff.
Logged

PeterAit

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 4559
    • Peter Aitken Photographs
Re: Arup Biswas
« Reply #11 on: June 01, 2015, 12:03:58 pm »

It is sad that in this modern world it would appear often that people who have spent years studying and learning and gaining experience so as to be able to consistently produce excellent work and then take the trouble to try to share their learning and experience are referred to pejoratively as "elitist" by others who have not bothered to go through a similar rigorous process.


Well said. I agree completely.
Logged

amolitor

  • Guest
Re: Arup Biswas
« Reply #12 on: June 01, 2015, 12:10:24 pm »

Alain's elitist flavor comes not from his helpfulness, but from his not-infrequent references to his educational background.
Logged

NancyP

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 2513
Re: Arup Biswas
« Reply #13 on: June 01, 2015, 01:17:40 pm »

I particularly like #6, Don't Neglect Your Neighborhood. I need to define my neighborhood a little more closely. Currently I tend to photograph in the conservation areas, state parks, national forests, and national fish and wildlife refuges that are from 10 to 100 miles from the center of St. Louis. That is what I have considered my neighborhood.

After a few visits early on in my digital bird photography (to practice on the nearly tame Canada geese that infest make the park their home (wiping bottoms of shoes off on nearest pavement), I totally neglected the 900 acre city park that is 2 blocks from where I live. In the last five years, the park employees and volunteers have replanted a patch of prairie, revamped the water features, and are in the process of managing the forested area back to a variety of native tree species. This all attracts more wildlife and gives better backgrounds (with planning to avoid man-made backgrounds). I have rediscovered the park in the process of trying to stay somewhat less flabby (walk - jog trail) in the winter.
Logged

Krug

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 246
Re: Arup Biswas
« Reply #14 on: June 01, 2015, 03:01:58 pm »


Thank you Amolitor you have helped me to understand an attitude on this and other sites which has puzzled me in the past.

I am afraid that you are suffering from a delusion. We the consumers are not 'product' we are at most 'a by-product'.

The 'Product' is what Michael and Kevin and people like Alain work hard to make - which is interesting and informative articles and reviews for us to consume and, hopefully learn and benefit from.

The fact that such availability is possible is in part due to the fact that advertisers wish to place information about their products on this site because of the high level of the Lula product and which itself implies a high level of serious interest and discrimination in us the consumers.

However to elevate us the consumers to the status of 'product' is unbelievably egotistically misguided  -  but then to approach the articles with the intention of simply lifting specific 'tips to improve one's photos' is itself very simplistic and undervalues the essential ethos of such a site which is more aligned to the concept of distillation of ideas after careful and longer term analysis and consideration.
Logged
John Ashbourne
 www.johnashbourne.com

Slobodan Blagojevic

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 18090
  • When everyone thinks the same, nobody thinks
    • My website
Re: Arup Biswas
« Reply #15 on: June 01, 2015, 03:40:52 pm »

In case nobody noticed, the OP, with exactly one post on LuLa in ten years, is serving the purpose of "salting the tip jar."

amolitor

  • Guest
Re: Arup Biswas
« Reply #16 on: June 01, 2015, 04:52:21 pm »

Advertisers have no interest in placing ads next to essays, no matter how good or bad the essay.

Advertisers wish to place ads in front of potential buyers. The essays are not ever going to buy anything, but you or I might.

What Michael is selling on this web site is an audience.

Now, Michael is ALSO selling things more recognizable as products (videos, other for-pay content?, workshops, and so on) to some subset of that audience. From that point of view, we constitute one or more  "markets" and a few of us are "customers".

Product/Market/Customer are all terms relative to your position in the system.

Nonethless, the most obvious position that we occupy is as a "product" to be delivered to advertisers. This isn't an indictment of anyone, it's not even a bad thing. It's just the reality of the situation.
Logged

NancyP

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 2513
Re: Arup Biswas
« Reply #17 on: June 01, 2015, 05:10:05 pm »

Tip #9 - shoot what you love or what fascinates you - if you don't care, don't expect anyone else to care.
Logged

John Camp

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 2171
Re: Arup Biswas
« Reply #18 on: June 01, 2015, 07:05:26 pm »

I particularly like #6, Don't Neglect Your Neighborhood. I need to define my neighborhood a little more closely. Currently I tend to photograph in the conservation areas, state parks, national forests, and national fish and wildlife refuges that are from 10 to 100 miles from the center of St. Louis. That is what I have considered my neighborhood.

After a few visits early on in my digital bird photography (to practice on the nearly tame Canada geese that infest make the park their home (wiping bottoms of shoes off on nearest pavement), I totally neglected the 900 acre city park that is 2 blocks from where I live. In the last five years, the park employees and volunteers have replanted a patch of prairie, revamped the water features, and are in the process of managing the forested area back to a variety of native tree species. This all attracts more wildlife and gives better backgrounds (with planning to avoid man-made backgrounds). I have rediscovered the park in the process of trying to stay somewhat less flabby (walk - jog trail) in the winter.

Nancy...I worked for a lot of years around the Mississippi, never in St. Louis but in Cape Girardeau and for a couple of decades in the Twin Cities, and I occasionally go to St. Louis on business. It's one of my favorite American cities (and I like Memphis and New Orleans as well.) I think you could spend a lifetime shooting in St. Louis; and find a friend with a boat and go on down the Mississippi a way. Some of the greatest white-sand beaches in America lie along the river south of St. Louis, and the wildlife can be spectacular. (Check Google maps for a quick look at the possibilities.) I once paddled a canoe down the Mississippi from top to bottom, and there really is no better place to be, or shoot, IMHO.
Logged

John Camp

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 2171
Re: Arup Biswas
« Reply #19 on: June 01, 2015, 07:06:50 pm »

Why is it necessary to tear down one contributor to compliment another?

If one were to specify the Internet's most salient characteristic -- not just on Lula, but everywhere -- it would be the pissing match.
Logged
Pages: [1] 2 3   Go Up