Cleaning up Crit #3

[W.Y.Photo]

This one is a 2-for-1 since they go together.

I've gotten a lot of mixed reviews on these images in the past.. so what do you think, good? bad? ugly?

 

[tirediron]

To be honest? Ugly. Other than perhaps a lighting experiment or somesuch, I can't see any point to this image.

 

[AKUK]

Agreed. To quote Ansel Adams "There is nothing worse than a sharp photo of a fuzzy concept"

Fine as a subject to experiment with lighting as @tirediron mentioned, or even calibrating your lenses but, it doesn't communicate anything to me personally.

 

[W.Y.Photo]

Thanks to the both of you. This makes me sad but also makes me realize something important. These images are from a series I shot in my freshman year of college almost 6 years ago. I was just beginning to understand what conceptual work was and how to go about making it, I was also fairly new to using studio equipment and had very little experience in studio settings in general. So in essence these shots really are part of a lighting and concept experiment. These images may work better when viewed with the whole series here: Attract and Repel William Young Photography

I was hoping these images alone would portray the concept but as you are not the first people to point out that they don't I think I will strike them from my website. I don't think that this project in its entirety matches up to my current skill level and as you have pointed out neither of these images can really stand alone; so as Yoda would say "gone they are."

Thanks again!!

 

[sm4him]

Question: As you clean up your website, WHAT exactly are you hoping to achieve?

I've seen a shot of a band, and these two. I haven't looked at your site to see if there is even more dichotomy, although to be honest, I'm not sure you get much more varied than band shots and skull-smashing-teddy-bear shots.

But if you're going to cull down the list of what makes it to the website, you need a really firm idea of WHY it should be on the site.
A quality image is certainly ONE qualification, but shouldn't be the only one.

Are you marketing yourself as a band photographer? A fine-arts photographer? Maybe someone very art-nouveau?
Are you trying to attract some sort of client? Those sorts of things will help you determine which shots to include.

If you're hoping to get bands to hire you, for instance, you want to demonstrate that you will get the shots they are after. A rock band probably won't care much that you can get good lighting on a skull and teddy bear.
On the other hand, if you're trying to showcase yourself as a fine-art photographer, photos of live bands probably aren't really a fit.

Of course, if you're just using your website as a showcase of your own personal interests and growth, and not aiming to market yourself in any way, then a lot of diversity in subjects isn't a problem, I guess.

 

[W.Y.Photo]

Question: As you clean up your website, WHAT exactly are you hoping to achieve?

I've seen a shot of a band, and these two. I haven't looked at your site to see if there is even more dichotomy, although to be honest, I'm not sure you get much more varied than band shots and skull-smashing-teddy-bear shots.

But if you're going to cull down the list of what makes it to the website, you need a really firm idea of WHY it should be on the site.
A quality image is certainly ONE qualification, but shouldn't be the only one.

Are you marketing yourself as a band photographer? A fine-arts photographer? Maybe someone very art-nouveau?
Are you trying to attract some sort of client? Those sorts of things will help you determine which shots to include.

If you're hoping to get bands to hire you, for instance, you want to demonstrate that you will get the shots they are after. A rock band probably won't care much that you can get good lighting on a skull and teddy bear.
On the other hand, if you're trying to showcase yourself as a fine-art photographer, photos of live bands probably aren't really a fit.

Of course, if you're just using your website as a showcase of your own personal interests and growth, and not aiming to market yourself in any way, then a lot of diversity in subjects isn't a problem, I guess.

Well, I'd like to achieve a more clean and easy to navigate site while maintaining examples of work that I can do for my range of clientele.

It is pretty varied, but that's because I do a lot of things with photography. I'd like to only show my Personal artwork on my site and leave the rest out to be %100 honest but I have to make a living as well. A freelance photographer doesn't get work by showing his family portrait clients nice landscapes, am I right?

Here's the thing.. I'm marketing myself as all of those things. While I would love to make a living off my art photography alone I cannot support myself with print sales at my non-existant exhibitions The Art of Photography is my passion and I would like to do exhibitions all the time but In order to do that I need to save up a lot of money. There are plenty of other fields of photography that I am familiar with and market myself in, including but not limited to Event Photography, Architecture Photography, Portrait Photography, and Product Photography. My business card reads: "Fine Art, Portrait, and Event Photographer" My elevator speech is always geared towards the potential clients area of work and if I'm telling someone who asks what type of photography I do I tell them that I can work in the 4 fields I mentioned above but I always put an emphasis on the Event Photography because I've never met a person who isn't attending or managing events of some kind or another.

In both cases you are correct, shots of bands won't help me exhibit work in a gallery (except by funding me to do so) and landscapes and teddy bears won't help me get bands to work with, but I need to market myself in both areas as both are important to me in my career.

So, I need a site that a gallery curator, the head of an architecture firm, and a new band in need of some photos can all go to when they get my card and see what it is that I can provide them with.