Re: [Leica] it DOESN'T work well for leica!

[Martin Howard <howard.390@osu.edu>]

Joe Codispoti jotted down the following:

> But
> most of all I think that we would all profit from more frank discussions of
> techniques and approaches to photography that would improve our use of the
> Leicas and lenses at our disposal.

We do do this, but I suspect that since we have no guidelines for how it
should be done, people's egos get in the way.  It is all too easy to take
criticism personally, or to get caught up in the style of the critique
rather than the content.

I good example is Bernard's critique of Johnny's latest (last?) installment
of Human Traffic.  I'm sure that many people paid more attention to
Bernard's delivery than what he was saying.  Admittedly, I find Bernard's
style rather no-holds-barred and a little rough, but he has no problems with
stating his opinion and his analysis is right on the mark at times.

What made it work was Johnny's response, taking the good pieces and
responding to them rather than getting caught in Bernard's style of
delivery.  I learnt a lot from that discussion and I'm grateful to both for
their contributions.

One of the problems of critiquing is establishing what is relevant and
useful.  At some level, all critique is personal opinion, so the issue
becomes which person's opinions carry merit and who's (whose?) are
considered useless.

Another problem is volume: A few people post a (URL to a) single message
once a week, or month.  But many (myself included) will put together a
website with anything from 5 to 35 pictures.  Some of these are more
important to the photographer than others -- so how do you know which to
comment upon?

A suggestion (and possible solution) would be to have some kind of
guidelines.  Something along the lines of:

  * Each person on this list could submit one image per month
    for critiquing (presented on its own page, neutral background,
    max 750 pixels wide, JPEG encoded, etc.)

  * With each submitted image, write a short presentation on why
    you chose to submit this particular image.

  * Each person on this list could critique as many pictures as
    they choose per month.  The critique should be constructive,
    rationale should be presented, alternatives given.

There would be no refereeing and hopefully the relative merit of critique
from various persons would become evident over time.

It could be a very useful learning experience.

M.

- -- 
Martin Howard                 | Super Cali goes ballistic, Celtics are
Visiting Scholar, CSEL, OSU   | atrocious.
email: howard.390@osu.edu     |       -- British sports headline.
www: http://mvhoward.i.am/    +-------------------------------------------