Ted Beilby wrote:
>
> When I was taking Basic Photography in jr.college, I feared the days when we
> had to critique. I soon came to learn that these were the days I learned the
> most about my work. These critiques were not just, "I like that one best.",
> there were times when my shots were ripped apart by the instructor and other
> students.
When I was at Sheridan, critique days were occassionally nerve-wracking,
especially when I had gone over my work and at the last minute found
some kind of glaring flaw that it was now far too late to do anything
about. :)
I too had some really tough experiences, and at the time I didn't
appreciate them as much as I do now. I find myself recalling criticisms
of my own work before pressing the shutter button and rethinking the
shot accordingly, and I think that this has made me a better photographer.
I remember particularly clearly the day I was ripped apart over fingernails:
The assignment was a promotional image for MacBeth, featuring the faces
of the person or persons in the image (it was second year portraiture,
after all). My image, which I was really quite proud of, was a fairly
tightly-framed head & shoulders shot of a man with a woman behind him,
slightly out of focus, hand on his shoulder, whispering in his ear.
I didn't notice her fingernails. They were rather ragged and chewed,
and what had apparently been a very nice nail-polishing job was chipped
and scratched up. I tried to justify it to myself later, saying that
Lady MacBeth would have had roughed up, unladylike fingernails, but
really, I don't think she would (but I have some pretty specific ideas
about MacBeth ;) ). And to be honest, my original Lady MacBeth didn't
show up, and moments before the shot I grabbed someone from the hallway
(and who in all other respects was fabulous, and better than the model I
had chosen originally). Anyhow, I didn't see the fingernails until the
shot was up on the board being critiqued, and they were the first thing
that the instructor saw, and he went so far as to praise and criticize
the positioning of the hand at the same time, because I had very
carefully placed it to seem caressing and controlling, and it really was
the focal point of the image...and then the image was knocked down by
her fingernails.
I still think that it was one of the best images I made while I was at
Sheridan, but I can't look at it without seeing those fingernails...and
I'm certainly not going to let something like that mess up another shot
of mine.
Also, while at the time I found the instructor to be maddeningly
detail-oriented, I think now that he was possibly the best instructor I
had while I was there. He taught us respect for our own work (poorly
cut mats or dust marks could completely do in your assignment) and he
taught us to be very very very very picky.
Anyhow, just thought I'd share.
BTW, the MacBeth image was shot on the Mamiya C33 that I later traded in
to help finance my Pentax 67, so now this post is not OT. ;) Oh, and
APX 25.
-Aaron
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