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Is it just me?

Sherlock77

Well-Known Member
V.I.P Member
I'm a semi-pro photographer, some people on the forum know that... I also have a geeky thing for Remembrance Day documentary photography...

For the Saturday Remembrance Day ceremonies, I was out and about for much of the day, taking photos... It was a struggle, too bright, too much sun, very challenging... By the end of the day I came home and wasn't feeling all that thrilled with my results, I feel... I know I've had better years

All the same I did my edits and a Facebook post, because it's important to me, but still feeling like I let myself down

Been getting comments like:

"Your album this year was extraordinary!"

"James takes lovely pictures and always has a Remembrance Day set."

"Still taking great photos, James, keep the good work up"


And some other comments, but I still feel like mud because I know I could have done far better, and yes I push myself too hard at times.

Then talking to a friend today about positive comments, she remarked that it's usually those people who are right.

I'm still not sure who is right... And I still feel like I've failed myself... There are definitely some things I'll change for next year... I'm not trying to pull the sympathy card, but this is how I feel at times...
 
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I think you have a different perspective from that of your audience that might account fof the discrepancy in opinion.
You know what your standards are, and you try to meet them, but for a lot of people, good and excellent are part of the same spectrum. So, if this year you put out some good, but not excellent work, you would know, because you know what you had intended to do, and you know what limitations you faced, but all that the people would see is that you put out some good work, and that's enough to make them happy (and guess what? They would absolutely be right). They're not in your head, sharing your dissatisfaction, but they can appreciate what you took the time and effort to share with them, appreciate the sentiment behind taking pictures of the commemoration, and all of the meaning that comes with the act of taking pictures rather than the actual image.

It's great to have superior standards, but don't let it keep you from enjoying the positive comments!

(And it's not just you, I tend to feel the same with the things I do, and I'm usually just too hard on myself. But it is just you thinking it's not good enough)
 
I agree with @Katleya on the differing standards. You do raise a point. Compliments are given out in my opinion far to often, to the point where they become meaningless, kind of like a participation trophy. When something is worth actual compliments, it is the same as all the other times you got a compliment that didn't really mean anything.
 
As an artist myself, I go through this often, and I will even get depressed sometimes if I'm not "up to par". The good news is that at the end of the day, I believe in myself. I also suspect you do, too - you already know you are good at what you do. Reality is that everyone has "off" days, and that's okay, b/c I suspect even our "off" days, we are still exceptional.

That's my take on it, but at the same time, I know the depression of letting yourself down. I have done that often in the past year in that I haven't even been motivated to do any artwork b/c of a break-up and death of my father. I'm not getting up in the morning excited about my art projects anymore.

This freaks me out! but then I realize that - hey, I'm an artist. Just b/c I have some bad days and even a period of time when I'm REALLY OFF KILTER and downright LAZY, I know in my heart that it's part of being an artist - and it's an honest process, if you think about it that way.
 
Or it's just me... Alright so I know this stuff but it does get to me sometimes... But I've been venting a little... I needed to hear all of this...
 
I'm a semi-pro photographer, some people on the forum know that... I also have a geeky thing for Remembrance Day documentary photography...

For the Saturday Remembrance Day ceremonies, I was out and about for much of the day, taking photos... It was a struggle, too bright, too much sun, very challenging... By the end of the day I came home and wasn't feeling all that thrilled with my results, I feel... I know I've had better years

All the same I did my edits and a Facebook post, because it's important to me, but still feeling like I let myself down

Been getting comments like:

"Your album this year was extraordinary!"

"James takes lovely pictures and always has a Remembrance Day set."

"Still taking great photos, James, keep the good work up"


And some other comments, but I still feel like mud because I know I could have done far better, and yes I push myself too hard at times.

Then talking to a friend today about positive comments, she remarked that it's usually those people who are right.

I'm still not sure who is right... And I still feel like I've failed myself... There are definitely some things I'll change for next year... I'm not trying to pull the sympathy card, but this is how I feel at times...
In my own opinion you're stressed and when you're stressed your body cuts off from certain things like creativity that's why you didn't get the pleasure from it so everybody else is saying it probably because they're not as stressed as you and it's pleasurable to them ,let's say I'm not enjoying this post because of the damn speak to text facility!
 
Think of a comedian on stage.

No, not that one, a different one.

The comedian doesn't decide what's funny, it's the audience.

One the work is out there, it's out there. In a way it doesn't belong to you. It's their experience of your art.

And, in art, there is no perfection as each observer brings their own viewpoint.
 
due to its nature being a perfectionist is hard :)

on bright days, i usually switch to black and white because the colours are washed out, i mix that with playing with my exposure, i also use square cokin filters, that darken the sky while leaving the land clear to balance out the overall exposure :)
 
Simply watching the tv series "The Good Doctor" really "brought it home" last night. Where he is totally focused on buying his first widescreen tv set and analyzing the pixelization of various sets based on action sequences (football) being broadcast at the time. Technological observations and critiques involving an individual tv set's response time and refresh rate.

I get equally frustrated with such attention to minute details that I still have problems accepting where most of the rest of this freaking world doesn't even notice. Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh! :eek:

In essence, at times I don't know which bothers me more. My own attention to such tiny details, or that so many others don't even notice. Exasperating, and with very few people in the real world who can relate to this. At least I know coming here and observing others with similar issues that I am not crazy.
 
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Simply watching the tv series "The Good Doctor" really "brought it home" last night. Where he is totally focused on buying his first widescreen tv set and analyzing the pixelization of various sets based on action sequences (football) being broadcast at the time. Technological observations and critiques involving an individual tv set's response time and refresh rate.

I get equally frustrated with such attention to minute details that I still have problems accepting where most of the rest of this freaking world doesn't even notice. Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh! :eek:

In essence, at times I don't know which bothers me more. My own attention to such tiny details, or that so many others don't even notice. Exasperating, and with very few people in the real world who can relate to this. At least I know coming here and observing others with similar issues that I am not crazy.

Like... The photo I was working on a couple of nights ago in Photoshop... With the single out of focus tree branch in the upper corner, completely wrecking the photo... My attempts to clone it out against the backdrop of a skyscraper were pathetic, because I have trouble cloning against complex backdrops... Will anyone else notice it? Maybe the sharp eyed photographers, certainly I will... The average person? Probably won't even notice it...
 

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