.....taking a break.....

very unlike me but for the past three odd weeks, I have been hard at work actially doing well, work.... Of course part of my heavy load was all down to me eternal procrastination and in my defence, it was all in the Christmas/New Year period. Not all down to this as I'm sure the three nights a week since then haven't helped. In a fit of madness, I've cleared almost all of the planning apps on my pile (except two) and am looking to getting back to my usual way of taking it easy. As such I've been stocking up on all of my old painting and modelling supplies and getting chatted up by sales assistants in halfords at the same time (should i go back for her number?)

Anyway.
For a long time now, I've been tempted to dust off the old SLR (not the car) and get back into my photography and painting. At the same time, coincidentally, some people around me have also been doing the same and often, this comes up in conversation.
One thing that keeps coming up is the question of what makes a good photo and how do the pros get it so right?
The simple answer would be that they have a naturally good eye, as is usually the case for those in anything design related (i know, shameless back slapping here...) but there has to be more to it. Sure, today anything that goes wrong can and is indeed fixed in the virtual Photoshop lab but even ebfore this was accessible to all, some people used to get it right from the word go. Of course a large part of it is down to pure experience and from that experience the knowledge of what happens when x happens. The one thing that it all boils down to is time. What the professional has and the the average amatuer doesn't, is time to wait for the perfect shot. Almost all of us know that certain light conditions make photography easier but just how many of us can get out and set up location at 4am just to catch the sunrise and low light? How many of us will wait an hour for the clouds to break for one perfect snap? Too often, our meagre attempts fail not because we're not good at taking a photo; after all taking a photo at it's basic is simply framing something in a fixed area and pressing a button. a little practice is all it takes to get framing right. the thing that makes the difference is the environment that the photo is taken in. the perfect lighting, the perfect subject, the perfect everything go into making a photo great and unfortunately, to get it all so perfect takes a lot of waiting.
Of course (again) this is only true for one type of photography.
What of the other end where it is spontaneity and life and action that you want, where it is an instant that you want to capture. In these cases, time isn't the issue and instead it is the instant that is wanted. What now?
What makes a quick snap good?
Random quirky framed black and white?
Over-exposed landscape with lens flare chucked in for good measure?
Is there a check-list of things that you either do in situ via lens and filters or post production in photoshop to make a photo good or (gasp!) cool? For that matter, does it even well, matter? After all, if what you're after is a photo to record something, what use is a "badly" cropped image?
Eye of the beholder?
What happens when someone who views it has a very high standard?
Does it matter?
Should you care?

That's something I've never been able to deal with.
I don't mind critisms but I cannot for the life of me stand praises. Tear me and my work down please but please don't give me or it praise. It serves nothing. It does nothing except make me want to destroy whatever it is you are praising. I've never really understood this but that is how it's always been. Those who have been with me in a art/design environment knows that I have very critical eye and that is how i expect others to be with me. Is this a fault? Maybe but I prefer a certain a level of honesty in all things and i believe if you are honest, you have to give both the good and the bad. Unfortunately, this way of thinking seems to be getting more rare as days go by. Every time I go to a gallery or museum or exhibition hall, i hear people blindly saying, this is cool, this is nice this is whatever and well, it galls me knowing that these people don't even understand what it is they are looknig at and talking about. Snobbery on my part? Maybe but then i have taken the time to make sure that on one level that I know what I am talking about. If I dont know, I won't say. It's that simple. Sure you can always defend these sorts of things with the simple "freedom" argument, that all people are free to have an opinion, even if it is inherently based on mis-information (or even no information at all). Only thing is, isn't an opinion just a moment? A reasoning based on a state of understanding? If your opinion is based on something that is incorrect, then isn't that opinion wrong and hence needs to be addressed?

If you read and post on internet forums as I do, then you will have no doubt come acroos the same "i have the right to an opinion" statement, usually from those with limited understanding of how things are
(i.e dumbass american teenagers.... excuse me for being very general here...).
How come they can't see the simple fact that while it is true that you are entitled to an opinion, i too am entitled to disagree with that opinion and if that opinion is wrong, then it is benificial for you to learn why it is wrong? An attack on an opinion isn't an attack on you.
To learn is the only way forward and this goes back to censorship.
If things are edited away and deleted, then what do you learn?
Not a whole darn lot.
What you end up with, is a whole bunch of monkies repeating the same old thing.