Quote:
Originally Posted by ABERS
.... the level of photography on such sites as this and Flickr is about the same level as pub football is to the premier league. Lots of keen participants but a bit short on expertise, skill and inventiveness.
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An interesting analogy, although inventiveness on the field is not always a quality shown by individual premier league footballers either
Expertise and skill would appear to be what most amateur photographic enthusiasts strive for whilst inventiveness often takes a back seat. An analogy I would offer is that most photo enthusiasts are the equivalent of 'tribute' bands - they study the work of the greats and after much practice may perform very close technically but, of course, do not break new ground or cause great excitement as the originals did. Originality is the missing element. How difficult it is to be truly original.
Time is a factor too: Premier league footballers are totally focussed on the game with little to detract. It is their raison d'etre and fulfils all their burning ambitions. Amateur photographers (and amateur footballers) have to fit their hobby around their working and family lives and so cannot develop as a full-timer can. Sadly, too much of the little available time can be spent at computers cloning out defects and adding false skys to images that we have seen a thousand times before. From what I have seen, much of what is shown on Flickr and on sites such as this is technically good-to-excellent but what is often missing is the ability to 'think outside the box'. It's like a breath of fresh air when someone posts an image that really does that - they are no doubt what PolaroidSky means by 'diamonds in the coal field'.