Everyone's a Critic

olli

Super Moderator Emeritus
Location
Guangzhou
Name
olli
So. I had the opportunity today to take some pictures along to a portfolio review and decided it was time to do it. I got a bunch of twenty printed up and took them along this afternoon. My reviewer was Richard Bram, whom I knew of from the In-Public street photography website. Richard is a classical street photographer (insofar as there is such a thing) and I was a bit nervous given that that style is not really my thing. In the event it was great - he told me some things I already knew, told me some things I knew but didn't know I knew (if that isn't too Rumsfeldesque a comment) and told me some things I had never thought of.

I won't bore you with the pictures or the details. Suffice it to say it was a very worthwhile experience and Richard is a very nice man. On Monday I'm doing another one with Werner Zurborn, new to me but well known as a different kind of street photographer and I'm taking part in a four day workshop with him next week. Should be fun.
 
Right here in Tbilisi. It's run by a crowd called KOLGA - it's a local group but there's a strong German input. In previous years it was a photo competition but this year for the first time it's a full festival of workshops, lectures, exhibitions as well as the competition. Best of all, it's all free since it's all subsidised by various international cultural agencies. Once all the locals who wanted to join up had done so, they opened it up to us expats as well. The pro's doing the workshops come from the UK, US and Germany. It should be good fun.

It's all at KOLGA TBILISI PHOTO
 
I won't bore you with the pictures or the details. .

i'm pretty sure i wouldn't be bored, but of course you may not want to expose yourself (stop sniggering at the back please) by revealing the content & comments - which would be perfectly understandable
 
Very nice Olli. Critique, hopefully constructive?, is a great tool when from the pro's that know their stuff. Enjoy the workshops etc!
 
i'm pretty sure i wouldn't be bored, but of course you may not want to expose yourself (stop sniggering at the back please) by revealing the content & comments - which would be perfectly understandable

Well, I suppose the two things that stuck with me were in regard to one image where he said this was an image he would take, but wouldn't print and discussing it further that led onto a general conversation about what I was trying to communicate through the image and what he was seeing.

As well as specific comments about images - cropping, dodging, etc. - it was this more general conversation about what I was trying to communicate, and what he was seeing, together with thinking about the limits and possibilities of the frame that was most useful. There wasn't really anything I haven't come across before in this but what was useful was to be able to talk about it - to ask questions, and be able to explain and point to an actual picture - rather than just reading about it in relation to some other generic image.
 
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