Joe McNally (a must-read in your RSS feed if you don’t already have it) made a comment the other day about how people on the intarwebs throw out the “awesome shot, dude” comment far too often. He’s right, and it’s something most of us have probably noticed.

Here’s the situation: you throw a photo out there, and anywhere from one to a thousand folks might say “that’s awesome” (or similar). Is it really, though? When it comes down to it, most photography is tepid at best – absolutely mediocre. My own work included.

I would like to proffer a different interpretation of those comments, however: they are more like votes than the literal “awesome” description in the statements. The more comments you get, the more awesome that picture likely was.

That’s really the point: no one will be honest (being rude marks you as a troll, so you get banned & blocked, losing your voice. Being nice is OK, but if you have nothing good to say… better to say nothing.

So if you have a photo, the real point is to take a look at how quickly people respond to it, how many, and what type.

After reading over these (sloppy) musings, I would add: this is typical of commentary from non-professionals.  These are actual consumers of much art, and I’m not sure that I’d necessarily dismiss their opinions outright.

With art of any sort, the technical aspects are all secondary to the aesthetic ones. By which I mean: any monkey can learn to paint, photograph, draw. But to do it well? Certainly there are physical limitations and restrictions, but by and large in the arts, the technical skills and knowledge can be acquired by any able-minded person.

To apply the technique well requires a certain inborn talent and exposure to the work of others.

In this vein, I’m starting to cross over and explore other design styles.  Sometimes this means stepping outside of the realm of photography.