Posts
How do you handle photographs like this one - it's probably something half of all photographers have tried at one time or another - definitely not original. Rain splattered leaves show up in many a portfolio and there's nothing unique about this particular picture.
Should I not have bothered? Do I just keep the image for myself? Can I put it in a portfolio?
Ever notice how many corn lily images there are in books from the likes of John Sexton, Bruce Barnbaum and others. Truth is it photographs wonderfully well and none of of them can resist. What about slot canyon images from Arizona - do we really need any more? Yet Alain Briot had one as his print of the month recently.
Bottom line is that I enjoyed photographing this peony, it was interesting trying to make a good print from it, and if it's a bit hackneyed, well too bad.
Message: if you find it interesting, then photograph it and the hell with who's been there before. Maybe you'll put it in your porfolio, if it's particularly good, maybe you'll just enjoy it for itself.
3 comments:
Amen!
One thing in your favour re. this shot: you've managed, I think, to capture the "sparkle" of the drops on the leaves. Something I've found impossible - like trying to capture the rustle of leaves.
I think it could well have a place in a portfolio of prints for selling - the public is generally so wide ranging in experience and opinion that they won't care if something has beend one before, if they like your version.
It's a tricky one, though, to consider if you were trying to get a portfolio accepted for inclusion in a magazine, or a show, or something else much more geared towards the art critic world. I think even if the image was exactly the same, and yet you could show it in a context of a series where it had a larger significance as an element rather than trying to stand on its own, maybe slightly randomly, in a collection of photographs - then it would be much more successful.
Purely my own speculation - doesn't change th fact that I appreciate it, personally, no matter how many times it's been done.
Post a Comment