EverLearning wrote:
I have a question that doesn't seem well-suited to the presentation boards (and I like my head attached to my shoulders, ) nor the gear forums. I am looking for some perspectives/opinions on BOS (Birds On a Stick) photos.
After a few evolutions of my web site I am changing it again. I am going to have content not visible from the site menus. It will just be for sharing with family and friends. The part visible from the web site will be strictly "best of best" and I am striving to keep it to a max of 100 photos across all categories, total. This is proving difficult, as emotional, biased attachment to photos seems to hold for many years!
One type of photo I am really struggling with is the BOS photos. That type of photo certainly draws some strong, negative reaction on this photography site (especially wildlife presentation board) but I wonder if that is a function of "demanding" (not the best word?) something unique and BOS photos are "too easy".
Coming to this forum to pose this question, I was drawn to another thread and came across this comment:
"My take: Interesting is a matter of degree. People like novelty. Something a bit more novel seems more interesting than something more common."
This speaks to my initial inclination to exclude BOS photos unless there is something really unusual or incredible about them. On the other hand, over the years several people (especially Kent) here have written at length about the many things that can make an otherwise "common" photo stand out - vibrant colours, patterns, textures, nature, placement and degrees of variance in lighting, very pleasing background, etc.
I think I have two questions:
1) As a photographer do you ever have "common" BOS photos that for whatever reason still stand out to you as special?
2) Do you find yourself surprised by strong positive reactions from non-photographers to "common" BOS photos that you didn't think were that good?
Thanks
I think a lot of it depends on how you look at your own photos. I like birds and like to see the close up detail you can see in birds on a stick. Birds in flight are harder to capture, but you don’t usually get the close detail. The more scarce species of birds will grab attention more so than a common bird.
When I take a photo with just the bird and an empty background the art part of the photo is the bird and all I did was to capture it, so I consider it a photograph. A photo of a bird with a more complex background and foreground where I have to do more thinking about colors, composition etc, I think is on a different level.
The words unique and novel put photos on an even higher level. For some folks unique and novel will not be enough to make a bird photo interesting, simply because they have no interest in bird photos.
Only you know how you feel about your photos, and it is your choice to pick and choose which photos go where.
) nor the gear forums. I am looking for some perspectives/opinions on BOS (Birds On a Stick) photos.