[SI] Mandate Suggestion

How about "best of the month" where you submit your best three shots of the
past 30 days, no restrictions on subject matter? Only rule: no archive
shots. All pics must have been taken in the 30 day period.

Let the whining begin...

On Thu, 10 Sep 2009 10:56:00 -0400, "Bowser" wrote:

How about "best of the month" where you submit your best three shots of the
past 30 days, no restrictions on subject matter? Only rule: no archive
shots. All pics must have been taken in the 30 day period.

Let the whining begin...

I'm starting to see a clear pattern here. They are just as uncreative with
their "mandates" as they are with their photography. It's starting to make
sense, why their beginner's snapshots are so pathetically boring. They
themselves are boring and common. This is why none of their photography
will ever be worth seeing. Just as an author cannot write about life unless
he's lived it, a "photographer" will never capture worthwhile images unless
he's truly experienced and seen life. Their minds and visions are just as
empty and pointless as their basement-lived lives. Clearly reflected in
their SI snapshots.

Here's a few very simple ones that none of you have tried yet, in any of
your photography:

Space
Contrasts
Compliments

Topics that should be in any Photography 101 course.

Here's a few other simple ones, for simple minds:

Fences
Minimalism
Fire
Pointillism
Hope/Hopelessness
Survival
Glass Houses
Steps
Camouflage
Vertical/Horizontal
Power
Freedom
Suffer
Evolution
Stagnant
Dynamic Symmetry
Limits
Beginnings
Rush
Trapped
Impact
....

That should keep you busy for two more years.

I could go on all day, all week, all lifelong, suggesting worthwhile
topics. That's what a creative mind does, that's why a creative mind can do
exceptional photography. No matter what camera is in the hands of that
mind, no matter what he happens to be seeing at that moment in time.
"Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what
nobody has thought." - Albert von Szent-Gyorgyi. It is only with a
creative and discovering mind will you ever be a worthwhile photographer.
You'll never be able to buy a camera with those features included, no
matter how much money that you throw at it. Much to your beginner's dismay.

But since I have no intention of ever entering any photos to entertain
these snapshooting beginners, nor let them learn from me for free, any
further input is just casting more pearls before swine. As they also say,
you can't make a silk-purse out of a sow's ear. Banal but true.

There you go, one more free topic, Pearls Before Swine.

Photography 101 wrote:
On Thu, 10 Sep 2009 10:56:00 -0400, "Bowser" wrote:

How about "best of the month" where you submit your best three
shots of the past 30 days, no restrictions on subject matter? Only
rule: no archive shots. All pics must have been taken in the 30
day period.

Let the whining begin...

And begin it did:


I'm starting to see a clear pattern here. They are just as
uncreative with their "mandates" as they are with their
photography. It's starting to make sense, why their beginner's
snapshots are so pathetically boring. They themselves are boring
and common. This is why none of their photography will ever be
worth seeing. Just as an author cannot write about life unless he's
lived it, a "photographer" will never capture worthwhile images
unless he's truly experienced and seen life. Their minds and
visions are just as empty and pointless as their basement-lived
lives. Clearly reflected in their SI snapshots.

Here's a few very simple ones that none of you have tried yet, in
any of your photography:

Space
Contrasts


Compliments --- is that the word she meant to use?



--
Frank ess

On Thu, 10 Sep 2009 08:59:16 -0700 (PDT), Annika1980
wrote:

On Sep 10, 10:56*am, "Bowser" wrote:
How about "best of the month" where you submit your best three shots of the
past 30 days, no restrictions on subject matter? Only rule: no archive
shots. All pics must have been taken in the 30 day period.

Let the whining begin...

I like it!
Of course I'm ****ed that I didn't think of it.

Now Cooper will probably come in and say that we can't do it because
they used that mandate in April at the Kissimmee Garden Club's monthly
show & tell.

That's exactly what I proposed in my earlier post on this. I said
"favorite", not "best", because "best" leaves a person too vulnerable
to criticism. Sometimes my favorite shots are not what I would call
my best shots.

Here's a favorite of mine from a few months ago. Not a technically
great shot, though. I call it "Portrait of Alan Browne" in honor of
his recent posting:
http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f2...per213/pig.jpg





--
Tony Cooper - Orlando, Florida

On 2009-09-10 13:53:00 -0700, tony cooper said:

On Thu, 10 Sep 2009 08:59:16 -0700 (PDT), Annika1980
wrote:

On Sep 10, 10:56*am, "Bowser" wrote:
How about "best of the month" where you submit your best three shots of the
past 30 days, no restrictions on subject matter? Only rule: no archive
shots. All pics must have been taken in the 30 day period.

Let the whining begin...

I like it!
Of course I'm ****ed that I didn't think of it.

Now Cooper will probably come in and say that we can't do it because
they used that mandate in April at the Kissimmee Garden Club's monthly
show & tell.

That's exactly what I proposed in my earlier post on this. I said
"favorite", not "best", because "best" leaves a person too vulnerable
to criticism. Sometimes my favorite shots are not what I would call
my best shots.

Here's a favorite of mine from a few months ago. Not a technically
great shot, though. I call it "Portrait of Alan Browne" in honor of
his recent posting:
http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f2...per213/pig.jpg

I have to agree with Tony here, "Favorite" is less likely to draw
venomous, snide criticism than "Best."
That way any criticism is more likely to be constructive and useful to all.
Some notes on why the submission is the contributor's "favorite" may
also help the viewer to gain that perspective.
--
Regards,

Savageduck

"Bowser" wrote in message
. com...
How about "best of the month" where you submit your best three shots of
the past 30 days, no restrictions on subject matter? Only rule: no archive
shots. All pics must have been taken in the 30 day period.

Let the whining begin...

Not a whine at all but I would prefer to see a more "guided" or restrictive
mandate than this. One of the things I like about shooting to a mandate is
the fact that I'm forced to think creatively about the title. Much of the
effort is in coming up with an approach or an idea which I believe hits the
mandate from an oblique angle, viz: Not something "interesting" in and of
itself put something which kind of represents "interesting" in a visual way
to the viewer, something which might make a viewer think the concept
"interesting" when they see it. At one level "best of the month" is simply
saying "shoot anything"... mind you now I think about it some more maybe
there's some scope to play around with this... "best of" doesn't need to
mean "best photo" after all...

As an aside when I set out to shoot for "interesting" I had in mind a
still-life arrangement of very dull and dusty tomes, maybe with subdued
saturation, and one child's book in full colour. To me that represented
"interesting" rather than precisely being interesting itself if you see what
I mean. The shot I ended up with came about as I was raiding the shelves
and had the idea that a child reaching for a book from the very top shelf
implied that the child found that book interesting enough to make the effort
to get it. I guess that's it for me, photography (and art generally) is
about trying to get the audience to think in a certain way, to suggest ideas
and concepts.

Anyway, I'd still rather see mandates designed to appeal to the actual
contributors to the SI rather than those who appear to have very little
interest in photography and who are very unlikely to contribute whatever the
mandate.

On 9/10/09 3:53 PM, in article ,
"tony cooper" wrote:

On Thu, 10 Sep 2009 08:59:16 -0700 (PDT), Annika1980
wrote:

On Sep 10, 10:56*am, "Bowser" wrote:
How about "best of the month" where you submit your best three shots of the
past 30 days, no restrictions on subject matter? Only rule: no archive
shots. All pics must have been taken in the 30 day period.

Let the whining begin...

I like it!
Of course I'm ****ed that I didn't think of it.

Now Cooper will probably come in and say that we can't do it because
they used that mandate in April at the Kissimmee Garden Club's monthly
show & tell.

That's exactly what I proposed in my earlier post on this. I said
"favorite", not "best", because "best" leaves a person too vulnerable
to criticism. Sometimes my favorite shots are not what I would call
my best shots.

Here's a favorite of mine from a few months ago. Not a technically
great shot, though. I call it "Portrait of Alan Browne" in honor of
his recent posting:
http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f2...per213/pig.jpg

You, sir, have captured the 'essence' of Monsieur Browne. Congratulation in
highest order are to be given!!!

"Calvin Sambrook" wrote in message
...
"Bowser" wrote in message
. com...
How about "best of the month" where you submit your best three shots of
the past 30 days, no restrictions on subject matter? Only rule: no
archive shots. All pics must have been taken in the 30 day period.

Let the whining begin...

Not a whine at all but I would prefer to see a more "guided" or
restrictive mandate than this. One of the things I like about shooting to
a mandate is the fact that I'm forced to think creatively about the title.
Much of the effort is in coming up with an approach or an idea which I
believe hits the mandate from an oblique angle, viz: Not something
"interesting" in and of itself put something which kind of represents
"interesting" in a visual way to the viewer, something which might make a
viewer think the concept "interesting" when they see it. At one level
"best of the month" is simply saying "shoot anything"... mind you now I
think about it some more maybe there's some scope to play around with
this... "best of" doesn't need to mean "best photo" after all...

As an aside when I set out to shoot for "interesting" I had in mind a
still-life arrangement of very dull and dusty tomes, maybe with subdued
saturation, and one child's book in full colour. To me that represented
"interesting" rather than precisely being interesting itself if you see
what I mean. The shot I ended up with came about as I was raiding the
shelves and had the idea that a child reaching for a book from the very
top shelf implied that the child found that book interesting enough to
make the effort to get it. I guess that's it for me, photography (and art
generally) is about trying to get the audience to think in a certain way,
to suggest ideas and concepts.

Anyway, I'd still rather see mandates designed to appeal to the actual
contributors to the SI rather than those who appear to have very little
interest in photography and who are very unlikely to contribute whatever
the mandate.

I agree, but every so often I think we should open it up a little. We
haven't had a very loose mandate in a while. Whaddya think? "Favorite of the
month"? No archive shots?

On 2009-09-10 16:38:18 -0700, "Bowser" said:



"Calvin Sambrook" wrote in message
...
"Bowser" wrote in message
. com...
How about "best of the month" where you submit your best three shots of
the past 30 days, no restrictions on subject matter? Only rule: no
archive shots. All pics must have been taken in the 30 day period.

Let the whining begin...

Not a whine at all but I would prefer to see a more "guided" or
restrictive mandate than this. One of the things I like about shooting
to a mandate is the fact that I'm forced to think creatively about the
title. Much of the effort is in coming up with an approach or an idea
which I believe hits the mandate from an oblique angle, viz: Not
something "interesting" in and of itself put something which kind of
represents "interesting" in a visual way to the viewer, something which
might make a viewer think the concept "interesting" when they see it.
At one level "best of the month" is simply saying "shoot anything"...
mind you now I think about it some more maybe there's some scope to
play around with this... "best of" doesn't need to mean "best photo"
after all...

As an aside when I set out to shoot for "interesting" I had in mind a
still-life arrangement of very dull and dusty tomes, maybe with subdued
saturation, and one child's book in full colour. To me that
represented "interesting" rather than precisely being interesting
itself if you see what I mean. The shot I ended up with came about as
I was raiding the shelves and had the idea that a child reaching for a
book from the very top shelf implied that the child found that book
interesting enough to make the effort to get it. I guess that's it for
me, photography (and art generally) is about trying to get the audience
to think in a certain way, to suggest ideas and concepts.

Anyway, I'd still rather see mandates designed to appeal to the actual
contributors to the SI rather than those who appear to have very little
interest in photography and who are very unlikely to contribute
whatever the mandate.

I agree, but every so often I think we should open it up a little. We
haven't had a very loose mandate in a while. Whaddya think? "Favorite
of the month"? No archive shots?

OK. I'm in for "Favorite of the Month"

Now I know for sure I am going to be disgusted with everything I take
until three days after you close it up.


--
Regards,

Savageduck

On Thu, 10 Sep 2009 23:01:18 +0100, "Calvin Sambrook"
wrote:

"Bowser" wrote in message
.com...
How about "best of the month" where you submit your best three shots of
the past 30 days, no restrictions on subject matter? Only rule: no archive
shots. All pics must have been taken in the 30 day period.

Let the whining begin...

Not a whine at all but I would prefer to see a more "guided" or restrictive
mandate than this. One of the things I like about shooting to a mandate is
the fact that I'm forced to think creatively about the title.

I'm in total agreement with this. Working with a mandate forces me to
look for things that I might not see as photographic subjects
otherwise.

My camera club had "triangles" as a mandate one month. Every day that
I was out photographing that month I was looking at scenes and objects
with an eye to triangular aspects. I still took the normal shots on
these trips, but I found triangles in scenes that I wouldn't normally
photograph. I ended up having to select from more than a dozen shots
containing a triangle aspect.

I ended up submitting:
http://tonycooper.smugmug.com/photos...9_ZfpUf-XL.jpg While I
did "pose" the candle holder later, I saw the triangles where I
wouldn't have noticed them before.

That said, I am in favor of a change to "my favorite shot of the
month". If it quells some of the present bickering, and increases the
participation, then the change is worthwhile. There are other venues
where there's some shooting to mandate. DGrin "Challenges", for one.


--
Tony Cooper - Orlando, Florida