Here I am sitting in an airport so I thought I would blog (hmm sounds like a limerick seen in bathroom stalls).
Critiquing / constructive criticism or how to give a critique has been covered ad nauseam do a quick google and you will find a description of how to give one. I want to talk about accepting constructive criticism. Constructive criticism has caused so much hurt not because the person giving it doesn’t perform it correctly but because the person receiving it doesn’t receive it correctly. The person getting the critique is usually a very inexperienced photographer and so they haven’t learned to take a picture of something, they are still taking a picture of a memory. They take pictures to capture a reminder of how they felt at that time and place. The photographer usually has great emotional attachment to the time and place captured in the image. They take this emotional piece of themselves and ask a stranger to tell them what they think of their memory. The stranger doesn’t know that the flat picture of a beach is a picture of the last day of the best vacation the photographer ever had they see a poorly composed clich√ɬ© beach snapshot. When you ask some one to critique a picture you have to remember they can’t see the emotion you have for the picture and they shouldn’t see it. You asked them to look at a piece of paper that has some colors and shapes on it (or a file with said properties). When they tell you the light is flat or there is no subject or the flow of the lines draws their eye off the picture they’re not attacking you they are trying to tell you what emotions and reactions they have to the picture. Listen to what they have to say and ask them what they like and what they don’t like try to look at the picture through the filter of their description. When you’re out shooting and you look out at that beach with your patient significant other standing next to you take a reminder shot but then look again and see how the light looks, is it flat does it accentuate the ripples in the sand or make them disappear look at the curve of the shoreline. As your standing there remember what the reviewer said, is there something you did right in that picture you can do again, is there something you can do differently so you don’t make the same mistakes you did last time. You should remember a good critique and try and improve you photography with it. The critique should be a tool that you can use to carve away the filter of your emotions to see what is beautiful or repulsive in front of you so you can capture it and share it. Always remember a good critique is not an attack on you remember they are trying to help you. They are trying to help you improve your photography.
Oh by the way we went to Kauai for our anniversary trip.