Feedback 5 Photos #4

2022, February 10

For the fourth time I submitted 5 photos at my local photo club NAFVA. We have two “judges” again. I am very interested to get feedback from one of them. It’s funny but the more you participate. And the more you get to know people. The more you realise whether you can appreciate their feedback. Because what became clear to me again tonight is that it really is always a personal taste. And especially from one of the judges the feedback is always the same. It’s voluntary and therefore is really doesn’t matter. Happy that they do this anyway. But it also makes it clear not to take everything too seriously.

What is also striking is that so many references are made to “famous” photographers. As if that should be a benchmark for what is beautiful or good. I also fall into that trap and I realise this. And definitely want to try to avoid it.

I have bought so many photo books in the past year and I understand references. But I think you should also be able to let it go. You don’t want to be a copy cat, do you? Just like social media, you can also be in"uenced too much with other people’s work from books. I prefer to look at a photographer’s philosophy. How does he/she work. Where does he/she get his inspiration from? What is the style of making. What is their meaning in their making, etc.

I don’t want to make the perfect picture. I want to express my own artistic feeling in a photograph.

Another thing I only realized during this session, the actual intent of people submitting their photos. Some send in their best photos (also from long ago) and others only submit their the most recent work. I try to submit only work from the last month.

Of course it’s nice if you are the photo of the month. But what really matters to me is the feedback about my current work.

However I heard you can do this also in our so called “tafelavonden”. The idea is that you show ‘un!nished works in progress’ about which you would like to hear the opinions and tips from those present. So in these “projectiebesprekingen” it is probably better to showcase your best work rather than just using it for feedback.

I submitted these 5 photos:

I didn’t get a lot of feedback to work on. Maybe not my best photos from the last month. 

I got a very strange comment for the first photo of the playground in the fog, it probably said more of the judge himself. Something I even don’t want to write here to detailed because it could attract suspicious traffc to my website. But it reminded him of kids and men.

The second photo with the pigeon and the closed hotdog stall. It would have been more interested to crop more on the pigeon’s face because it looks bit surprised.

This could work, but I actually liked the empty/deserted damsquare here with one pigeon. 3 minutes earlier it looked like this:

For the windmill with the tree and the B&W bikes I didn’t had real feedback, it didn’t do it for them. I understand, there is no real story here. And it is an eye opener for me as well. I need more stories in my photos. Although it is clear to me (nature and windmills can work together just fine), it is not clear to someone else without telling the idea.

The cage photograph they found interesting, normally you would pass this but you captured it. The composition of the cage was correct. And for the judge it was a typical photograph how people feel these days in lockdown Corona time.

Funny enough I don’t have this feeling at all. Ofcourse after almost two years it would be nice that a lot of things open again. And I hear a lot of complaints that there is nothing to photograph. But personally I didn’t had any problems with this. Maybe because my style is already a bit more deserted / post apocalypse. So, for me this photo has nothing to do with lockdown. I just wondered why there is a trap in this landscape that wants to capture nature in a cage.

This weekend I actually made another shot of this. Which came out better I think.

Although I had this time a bit more to mention about the way of judging. It is absolutely not a complaint. You always learn from feedback. There’s plenty I’m taking with me. Perhaps this time more in general than the actual commentary on the photos themselves.

** Update **

2023, April 18

When selecting my images for "Lost in Amsterdam" I still chose the image of the FedEx bus on the Damsquare. However, not as it was cut out above. But with the woman on it that I cut out first. Funny how taste changes over time. So don't throw away your photos. Sometimes the image you had already made in the first instance becomes the final choice.