XtremeCamera

Now this is really sad. At the same time its great material for my next blog post, which was supposed to be Thursday but I asked the others to let me have today. Why? Cause this needs to be said NOW.

This morning I accepted my job to begin critiquing photographs in the Member Gallery. Already I have received a dozen emails, and its been what, a few hours? Good Lord!

Seems like I have already upset people. Not just people whose work I’ve critiqued but also some who have simply read the critiques.

When I was hired a couple of years ago I was told that I would be spending much of the time critiquing photographs, and I had no problem with that. Because I have a background in teaching photography, writing about photography, and critiquing on some other professional photography web sites I thought it would be a piece of cake.

Then, last year, it was time to step up and be counted. What we did was run a trial. We had the working code up on a development server and had a group of our beta testers upload their best work to the site to run critiques. While most of the testers thought I had critiqued well, two of the Admins here (who I won’t identify, pussies both) told me I wasn’t going to be on the first string team. I was too harsh. I tore photos apart, like I am supposed to. Or so I thought.

Over the past six months there has been plenty of growing pains here, and in my opinion one of the worst was with the other Admins trying to soft pedal their critiques to people that were basic snapshot shooters. Nothing wrong with that, per se, but if we ever wanted to attract the kind of members that wanted to come here and LEARN, then we needed to toughen up.

The Admins learned that the hard way. Yesterday, in the first of many steps toward turning this ship around, I was told I was going in to pinch hit for John for a while. I agreed and started this morning.

Here I am, trying to figure out how to say this nicely. I can’t, so I’m going with the gut. Let the chips fall where they may.

Note* This is NOT for the entire community (as small as it is) This is for all those that feel like I have attacked them or someone they know. I’m stopping this nonsense before it gets out of hand because I expect to ramp things up even more than I have already.

You are here to become better photographers, at least I hope so. All those members who were here for other reasons should have left by now. The remaining members should all be serious about their work. If you’re still here, and if all you want is a pat on the back and for me to tell you that you’re the best, well, you better look elsewhere because there are only a handful of photographers on the planet that I think are masters. I’m going to tell you honestly if your photograph is even a photograph or not. Much of what I have seen seem like snapshots to me. I stepped up, now its YOUR turn.

The Member Gallery is a place for showing your work and letting other, trained eyes, look at it and tell you what you are NOT seeing, or help other members see what you and I both see. Like shadows that go unnoticed, focus points that are missed, snaps that clearly show someone simply picked up their camera and pointed and clicked. I don’t want to see snapshots, I want to see photographs.

If someone doesn’t understand the difference between an fstop and a shutter speed they shouldn’t allow their work to be critiqued. You need to learn the basics before you are out there showing your work. You need to know that setting your camera on ISO 1600 is not really a great idea in the bright midday sun. You need to know what depth of field is, you need to know that to stop motion you need shutter speed. You need to know the basics. At least read John’s “The Scales of Photographic Justice” for goodness sake.

If you don’t know, and if you still upload a photo to the member gallery and want it critiqued, expect to hear about it. Expect to hear me say that you did it all wrong, that it’s a snapshot. It’s for your own good, and the good of other members.

If XtremeCamera has any hope of ever becoming the place we want it to be we need to make our members understand that the Member Gallery is not a place to share your fun photos, its a place where education happens. Its not a place to play, its school.

Now that is not to say that the only people here that can properly critique is me, or another Admin. Well, except for John, who himself has handed out way too many pats on the back. He needs a nice long break. There are several members here who have the talent for photography and the guts to be honest in their critiques. The rest of you? Stick to making comments and don’t even try to critique. If, on the other hand you know your photography and want to critique but don’t quite know how? Read our critiques and follow suit, but you better know what you’re talking about because I expect every photographer that receives a critique they don’t think is right to speak up and say so. No more clicking on the “Helpful” link if you don’t honestly think its helpful. Speak up! Tell me I’m wrong, tell anyone they are wrong. But if you do, be prepared to back it up, because you will be challenged.

Critiques are serious business. Why in the world would someone who is serious about photography even want someone to hold back and tell another member that their stuff is “just perfect”? What good does that do anyone? If you are one of the members that have signed up here to get many pats on the back you’d be better off leaving now because you’re just going to get upset. Do yourself a favor and head over to another site (I have one in mind) where photography takes a back seat to gossip and silliness.

I do not, and never have, pulled punches. If I see a bad photo I’m going to tell you. If I see a good one I’m going to tell you that too. If I don’t think you have the talent I’m going to send you a private message and tell you to give it up and try accounting. This is no place for the thin skinned, star-seeking snap shooters. At least not any more.

I will, and I hope others will, comment and/or critique every photo that gets uploaded to the Member Gallery. But, if after a long day of writing critiques I skip yours, chances are I see it as snapshot and I’ll pass on it. Only when I’m tired though, otherwise snapshots will be critiqued until there are zero snapshots in the gallery. It will take some time for me to catch up, but I will catch up.

I’ve seen some members join as snapshot shooters and become real photographers in the last few months, so those of you with potential, and tough skin, you will become better photographers.

I don’t know about you, but I take my body of work extremely serious. I have studied for years, been torn apart myself a million times, and I’ve won many awards and have been published at least 10,000 times in the last 10 years. I never gave up, and I became the photographer I wanted to be. I am here to share with you what I know, not coddle you. If you disagree, tell me so. I’m ready to rumble, are you?

Julia Barnes