[Leica] decisive moment question on PAW: make it your project too

[Alastair Firkin <firkin@ncable.net.au>]

G'day all,

Well not so quite on it, rather pulled away to other things. I'm 
surprised to see so many comments about "photographs" ;-)

Firstly, I should make a comment about FOM2 and let's not get too 
carried away with it. The decision to include or not include images 
in FOM2 is NOT made by me. My occasional comments on this forum, are 
designed to keep some of you thinking about the project, and 
sometimes to stir up those who keep thinking: I should put those 
shots up some time. There were images chosen last year, which 
surprised me, and one of the things which was interesting was how 
diverse opinions are. This recent spray of comments illustrates the 
point. But rather than feel rejected or "insulted", I would hope some 
of you might fight to demonstrate that you can do better. If someone 
submits to the project, I do not reject the image based on any 
grounds other than it being outside the guidelines. I have not had to 
"censor" anything so far. Some images come in, and I wonder why, some 
come in and I feel inspired, but because the project is designed to 
suit all levels, they all go in.

Some of you have made comments that the images are not up to 
standard: OK, submit something better, and when it come to November, 
join us in judging the images, and putting your flavour into the 
final choice. Please, make this YOUR project, and put some diversity 
into the results.

To Rob's image: I like its spontaneity, and I like the fact that it 
tells us something about the husband and wife. I do like the tired 
look on the male, and (sadly) I do relate to it. I like the flag 
waving -- OK, I don't know it was taken at a Soccer celebration, but 
I know there was patriotism involved, alcohol involved and families 
involved, and that's not a bad basis for a story. Flash - I don't 
like using flash, but sometimes its needed I suppose. The flash is 
flat, but then there is not a lot of time to set up an image like 
this, unless you are doing it in the studio. I've done a lot of 
"party" photography. Its often pretty boring. Usually the "snap" 
shots include the subjects stuffing food into their faces, half 
swilling, or in mid sentence with eyes shut and mouth twisted, or all 
looking at the camera silly grins on their dials etc. This is not a 
pretty picture, and I agree that for a wedding, I'd probably reject 
it. Can't imagine the pair wish to be "remembered" this way, but this 
is not a pretty scene, and I do think it was captured accurately. As 
for the 15, its great to hear the more professional guys warning us 
about this kind of "table detruitus". I would add, that I hate the 
accumulated bottles and masses of food that often appear in these 
shots. We can all learn from it, but it also sets the scene. When I 
see that sign, I know EXACTLY the type of evening from bitter 
experience.

Why would I comment on it wrt FOM2? Simply to keep the variety coming 
in, to keep pushing you all into putting your "money" where your 
mouths are, and to encourage participation by as many luggers as 
possible. Steve and Jeffery may consider the project a failure. I 
never set it up to be a "success", only to have a go, and provide a 
vehicle for everyone here to express their own individual 
photographic stories in front of the group in a non threatening way: 
your rejected images are never put out in front of the group, and 
that is why (amongst other reasons) that the initial submissions are 
kept anonymous. Year one was good, I would hope year 2,3,4 and 5 
would get better, but it means that all of you who would like to see 
a prospective mass of images representing the first 5 years of this 
"age" get out there, record, document, experiment, and SUBMIT.

Sorry for the rave, I was due to push and nag a bit anyway. Remember, 
its not my challenge, its everyones. I do hope some of the 
"professionals", and especially those who have correctly critisised 
this image, will put up some of their own, and show us all how it can 
be done.

Cheers and here's luck
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