“My images recently have been real personal, and purely for me. I have noticed a few comments about them not measuring up to my older images. Maybe so from a “catcha” sort of standard but from an emotional standpoint my newer images divulge more about me than any I have ever produced.

While I might not get as many “wow, that’s great”s I get a real satisfaction in looking at an image and truly feeling what the shot is about. I laugh, cry or scream from just a look.

I’ve come to realize that that’s what art is all about for me and always has been. A release. A way to let it all out. A way to express my feelings to another person as opposed to a group. I’ve never been swayed by popular opinion. When I first started shooting my crazy little shots so many told me not to. It’s not a popular genre, nobody does it, it can’t sell were just a few of the things I’ve heard. Didn’t listen to them then and won’t start now. I will always listen to, and value those, comments made from people who don’t like my shots. The great thing about art is that some like and some don’t.”

- Dave Nitsche

Dave is the one photographer that has always awed and amazed me with his images, especially with his studio and still life shots. He conveys a myriad of emotions with simple items like wooden dolls, glasses and a bit of fake blood. He’s the photographer I aspire to be. Of course, I wouldn’t want to imitate his style [that's cheap]. I’d like to develop my own style, and make as much impact through my own originality as Dave did with his.

His statements above is something everyone, not just artists, should understand and appreciate. Art and personality is about expression of self. Something that may relate to you would probably be the newly emerged art of blogging.

Blogging, like other forms of art, is all about expression. It’s not about trying to gain traffic, or whoring in comments, or being part of the elitist circle. I’m not here to tell you what you should or should not do. I’m just reminding you to do what do you do for a reason. If the reason is plain vanity and jumping on the bandwagon, then suit yourself. I hereby congratulate you for being mediocre. If the reason is personal satisfaction, I congratulate you for being passionate.

But, I’m more interested in photography than blogging.

Maddox put forward some really good points when he talks about his strong opinions against digital photography. Now that everyone can have digicam, they all want to shoot something and show it to people and expect comments even if it means absolutely nothing to them. I don’t have anything against people who go around camwhoring. Really, I don’t. But everytime I see a series of camwhoring photos, or a big fat bunch of photos that show smiling faces with V signs and hands on the hips, trying to look chic or macho or whatever, I just hang my head in dissapointment.

It’s about vanity all over again. And being on the cool side, and being in the trend. Which is boring.

[warning: I'm turning into a conceited bitch. Bear with me for a while.]

Call me a non-conformist if you want. I don’t care [at the rate blogs are appearing, everyone has an opinion on something, and everyone has an opinion on everyone else's opinions, and everyone thinks their opinions are the most unique]. I can say this because at least, I’m honest. Sure, you go around camwhoring for fun, to preserve that moment in time as a memento. Which is always good.

But man, if you’re gonna share a photo and expect people to call it ‘art’, you could at least make sure it’s significant to you. Describe what compelled you to share that photo. Convey what you feel about that photo to your viewer. I might sound a bit cocky here, but hey, I don’t like to sugarcoat my words or tell white lies about my opinions. I just find boring portrait photos to be.. well… boring.

Now that you have a digital camera, don’t be afraid to experiment. Shoot at odd angles, compose a bit, make your shots look interesting. If it’s a portrait shot, make it unique, like say, shoot while your subject is off-guard, picking his ears while talking [for example], and compose it such that it feels as though the viewer is there, looking at him picking his ears and he doesn’t even notice it. Explore the possibilities, and be different.

Turn off the flash, and keep your hand steady. You might be able to get cool lighting effects from various spots like a window, or under the shade of trees, for example. [Albert is THE dude when it comes to this.]

Potrait photos of the subject looking at the camera is so fucking boringggggg!!! It’s like they’re saying ‘Hey look at me, I’m like, so hot! Like, you know? Hot? Like, duh?’

Okay, enough bashing. You have to forgive me for that small outburst. Now back to the main point.

As I have mentioned, art is about expression. If you can’t appreciate art, very well then, I can live with that. No questions asked. But I must ask you not to tarnish the principle of artistic photography by uploading pointless and poorly focused photos of a tomato on the kitchen counter and calling it ‘art’. At least not without trying to send a message across.

You have every damn right to upload your camwhoring or fun-fun photos because you want to share something fun. But don’t ever, EVER call it art. If you want to see what ‘art photography’ is about, have a look at Dave’s gallery. Maybe that might enlighten you a bit on what I’ve been babbling on.

It’s all about expression.

[Man, I'm a real stuck up bitch sometimes. Must be the sugar.]