So what do you think? Yea or Nay?
Here are some discussion points. If you have feedback during this transition weekend (12/13/14/15 April, depending on where you are), then leave a comment here or just tweet to @WeRPhotography. If you come across this post later, you can leave a comment or send an email.
There are many "groups" on Flickr. Some have purely grown from Flickr users themselves and their specialist interest areas. eg Macros, Strobist lighting, particular cameras, nature, wildlife, nudes, b&w, etc and very much etc.
Some Flickr groups grow out of external influences. Recent guest tweeter Haje Jan Kamps has one for his online photography school and one for his Triggertrap devices. Inaugural tweeter, Daniella Bowker has one for Small Aperture. Other guests may have started their own for various reasons and I would not be surprised if many of you are members of at least one Flickr group.
- Who would be a member?
- Just Admins?
- Admins and guest tweeters?
- All followers?
- Who would run it?
- What would we do with it?
- Show off our images? Can we not already do that with our own, individual, Flickr accounts. Or 500px or 1px or personal websites? Yes, of course we can, but is gathering them in one place of added value?
- Ask for, and hopefully receive, individual image critiques? Sure, we can ask, but who is going to do the critiques. I love to critique images for people who genuinely want to receive such feedback. I think I'm pretty good at it, as well.
The trouble is that most people just want to receive a "Great pic, dude" or similar, and in today's age of digital imagery and ubiquitous camera phones, most images deserve no more.
Some deserve much less. Not our guest tweeter's images, of course, but you know what I mean.
Who else would provide thoughtful, artistic critiques? We have had some wonderful photographers on @WeRPhotography (and there are more to come*, I assure you). Some of them are full-time professional photographers, some of them are not and therefore have other full-time jobs. Do we feel comfortable about asking any of them to provide a lot of critiques? I went through a 365 project with a college student once and I was spending much more time looking at, analysing, and discussing his images than he was spending to capture and process them! - Hold competitions. That is an interesting thought. Different "themes", "subjects", "techniques"? Who will decide on the topics, who will adjudicate? Who will arbitrate the contested contests?
- Why are we just talking about Flickr? Are there other options?
- Anything else? Let me know.
Critiques would certainly be one reason for having the group.
ReplyDeleteMore importantly the photographer may explain how & why she/he created the shot or the viewer my ask how/why the shot was created. It would be a great learning opportunity for all of us.
The idea of themes/subjects is a good one. That way you could comprehensively cover one topic at a time.
I think membership should be open to all, even if they don't (yet) follow @WeRPhotography.
As Allan said, I think the flickr group would enable purple to expand more on the photos shared. Also, I don't always have time to look at every photo shared on twitter, but if they were also shared to the group it would be easier to go back and look through them. Also may be useful if you are trying to remember which previous tweeter took that memorable shot!
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