1128

Tonight, as part of my continuing immersion in Flickr, I attended the AFPG meeting at Starbucks in Decatur Square. This is probably the first time I’ve met up with folks from “online” since the BBS days, when I met some kids off of a multi-line BBS back in the early 90’s. I’d say this meeting went considerably better than that one: I’m a bit more in my element discussing photographs than playing mini-golf.

I bought a “tall” mocha something for $3.17 and took my seat, trying to sip the drink without letting my nervous hands shake too much. (It’s a little nerve-wracking to meet eight new people!) Introductions went well and we eventually moved on to the meat of the evening: photo critiques.

Our project of the past couple weeks was to submit two photographs of a group in a social setting. I chose two selections from my Grandfather’s 90th birthday, held in Savannah three weeks ago. I like these photographs, but they’re not quite where I’d like them to be. Due to time constraints we each discussed one photograph, the photographer introducing his/her work and then opening the floor, as it were.

It went pretty well. Some folks had some nice things to say about mine, and I about theirs. I also had some (hopefully constructive) not-so-happy things to say about theirs, and they about mine. To wit: we discussed the one of a family friend, Paul, laughing on my Uncle Harold’s shoulder, and the consensus seemed to be that they’d like my Aunt to be cropped out of the photo. It was also rightly noted that such a cropping would change the mood of the photograph; ideally I would have gotten more of her in the frame, though.

It’s very tricky to give constructive criticism on others’ photographic work. While the last thing I want to do is hurt someone’s feelings, I am either very critical (a jackass), particular in what I like, or right on target; only a couple of the photographs I saw tonight actually appealed to me. Perhaps it has something to do with my general approach to photography: I’m trying to capture something I’d be proud enough of to frame and put on my wall. When I upload a photograph to Flickr (and keep it public), that’s essentially what I’m saying in most cases: I like this enough to put it on my wall.

Our next meeting will be in two weeks; the assignment is as of yet unknown, but I look forward to it. I’m hoping for another involving people, as that’s an area I need improvement in. That’s what I like most about Flickr so far: it’s an actual audience for your photographs (a powerful, valuable thing), and because of that it pushes me to create more and strive for better photographs.

Posted: Thursday, June 30th, 2005 at 2:02 am; Category: 1128; Comments feed: RSS 2.0.
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