the wow factor

[Ilovemycam]

in photos. The extreme post processing.

im wondering. if it is a sign of the times.

People being flooded mentally with entertainment and images. receptors looking for the next "fix"

or it could be, that i just generally shoot boring photographs. which im content with so..

or it could be, people are accustomed to such stimuli they seek the next highest they can find.

in a world full of a million images and video, that can be hard to find.

facebook. tv, i pads, i phones, satellite radio, on demand movies

i dunno

i wonder if it is a entertainment drug effect.


and now people are looking at photos that way.

jerry spring wowed me, okay. im going to look for a photo to wow me.
course jerry springer is off the air i think.

im just sayn

it could be cultural, even generation specific

what is better, the old psycho movie or the newest special effects horror film?

im no better, some of the shots people tell me they like the best i think are boring.
its just a leaf. so what. now if the leaf was on fire, spinning around in the wind, and had a caterpillar on it and shot from a cool perspective we might have something.

Thoughts? Has photography become more entertainment oriented? If so is it positive or a detriment?
does a photo need a entertainment value? is this like the newest sitcom or something? what happened on face book today?

i see a lot of decent photos not getting much for comments. They must be too boring or not have entertainment value.

As one curator told me...the world is just polluted with photos. PP helps a lot, (extreme or not) in getting your photo noticed so somone can look at it for a second or two before they go onto the next photo in the pipeline of millions.

 

[bribrius]

Get a mentor.

im looking. im looking. put the word out, telling people im into photography more trying to get to know others into it. Retired photographers of fifty years or whatever arent just jumping out of the woodwork around here looking to pass on their knowledge.

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/beyond-basics/125099-official-mentors-bio-list.html#post1258496

Thanks. I have considered it but im really trying to find a local situation not long distance. someone that can see the same thing I do, show me what they see. First person. take a photo of the same thing I am and show me what they did to make theirs better. The proof is in the pudding. Online advice is very helpful. But im not sure to the same extent? And advice is cheap. showing you can do better yourself in first person and how, well there isn't any b.s. in that.
I could tell someone how to take out a alternator, post a article on it, without even ever changing a alternator correctly or maybe even changing one at all. write a article on alternator changing (just for example). Its just giving advice. But if I do it in front of them, well that is pretty much a straight solution with no b.s.
And the more they show me in person, that they know what they are doing, the more apt I would be to have a lot of respect and listen and trust the source of the knowledge.
im not asking for a lot of time either, few hours a week, couple days a month. maybe even less. You can get advice on line, like on here, "you should have done this, you should have done that, what about this" and it is helpful. But it can also be peanut gallery. Maybe they took fifty shots to do it, post processed the crap out of it, or read some stupid article on it once. someone walks up and does it themselves, no b.s. there.

Helpful for the mentor figure as well. They can see the student in front of them, and exactly what is going on. Cuts to the chase maybe?

 

[bribrius]

My thinking could be from a previous experience too, business operations related on getting accounts, product purchase. I had a old fella offer to give me a helping hand once as they were experienced and I was just learning that field. As customary, in return I was expected to pay for his lunch or meal for the time we spent to discuss. A courtesy for the time. That works. It wasn't a formal or made or have to do situation. wasn't about the money (god knows I didn't have much) but A courtesy and respect situation for him donating his time.

edit: That gentleman was a god send too. I was about to go after bigger accounts. He made me realize the bigger the not necessarily more profitable just the more leveraged and higher liability. Probably stopped me from getting in a situation where I bit off more than I could chew and had written a check my azz couldn't cash. I could have ended up in deep, deep, doo doo. Right after that I seen a bunch of locals go under and into bk and it went right up the chain taking out a couple nationals. Their stuff going to auction as the expenses weren't running much higher than the bid contract prices. I would have most probably been screwed as I had not backup plan and no where near the cash reserve or liquid assets to survive, I was playing a game I couldn't survive if tshtf. And it did. still walked out losing twenty k on something else and a world of headache but didn't lose all my **** anyway because I hadn't dumped my entire life into it and hadn't leveraged myself to kingdom come...
wouldn't surprise me if without him my kids would have ended up living in a cardboard box (probably exaggerate) but it would have been real BAD.

 

[Designer]

I've mentioned doing this before, so nothing new; find out if there is a camera club in your town. IMO camera nuts are only too happy to talk photography and you might end up with someone just as you are describing. Good luck!

Or start one yourself. Get on CL or post notices at the local grocery store, etc.