Never trust a camera club judge
At my old camera club, we had competitions each month and I entered this shots as a 16×20 matted print:
Storm over the Blue Ridge Mountains
I’ll never forget the judge’s comments – “I’ve never seen a sky like that – really overdone…” and she gave it a poor score. Undeterred, I keyworded and uploaded to various stock sites where it sells from time to time.
I was watching Comcast on demand last night and paused the program. To avoid burn-in, the system starts displaying various photos and the weather forecast for the next few days and was surprised (and pleased) to see this image behind one of the weather captions. It repeats fairly frequently, but as a new Comcast customer, it is the first time I have seen it. No idea, of course, how much they would have paid to license it, or how long it has been there, but it is always best to listen to, then ignore if necessary, the advice of others about your photography. Go with what you like (and in our business, what you think will sell!)
Excellent point Steve … after all the best judge of your work is the one that’s willing to open their wallet and purchase said work. Everyone else’s opinion is worth just about what they paid you to listen to it. Of course except your’s when we’re here to hear just that! Cheers and congrats on completing the move …
Thanks Bill – it has been a long process to get here, but it will be worth it in the end!
There seems to be a lot of negativity among photographers, at least stock-oriented ones, and often the inability to remember, that art is what speaks to you rather than an objetive criterion.
I participate in a few micro stock forums and I am always amazed at how quickly people will jump in, uninvited, to deliver criticism on your work. Someone posts a photo with the question “do you see a sensor spot here?” and all jump in to say, not but your photo sucks and by the way, your port also.
Go figure. Nice pic by the way.
I wouldn’t say never trust a camera club judge because of that.
The sky is quite digitally modified and while it may suit some forms of photography, it has lost a humanistic aspect to it. Lots of stock is highly digitally modified. Your photo is fine but the place of stock is different than most other photography where the sense of realism is emphasized over fantasy and impossible images.
Hi Chris – I don’t disagree with your comments. I do actually value what camera club judges have to say (and I’m also one of them!) but to be honest I was looking for a title to attract a reader. Journalistic license!
Steve
Ah-ha … and by jingle it worked then didn’t it 🙂
Honestly, she was right.