Frosting Turds

In his play, Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare wrote:

"What's in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;"

What that means, in plain English, is this: A thing is what it is, not what it's called.

I spend a fair amount of time perusing photography forums. Each forum seems to have an almost tribal personality of its own. When it comes to critiquing work, the members of some forums are brutal and, on others, they are more attaboy-ish. The Chiefs and Indians on some forums lean more towards photography's rules and technical stuff while, on other boards, they are more focused on aesthetics and creativity. On still other boards, they're all about Wow! value and cultural and Pop trends. On some forums, many of the members are quite accomplished as photographers. On others, there seems to be a greater number of novices and, on others -- Dare I say it? -- wannabees.

On forums that specialize (or have sub-forums that specialize) in models and model photography, an unwritten rule seems to be: The hotter the model the more responses and praise is heaped on the photographer.

Good images, sometimes great images, of less-beautiful models or less-admired types of models rarely get as much attention paid to them. I guess that's human nature. Make that man nature.

What sometimes riles me, though, is when I see lackluster images of really hot models and yet the critiques heap praise on the photographer's skills-- Not the model's beauty but the photographer's skills! And maybe I'm being too polite here? Maybe I'm being a little too PC using words like "lackluster?" Maybe I should have said, "When I see images of beautiful models that (photographically) suck!"

Photographically speaking, a turd is a turd no matter how beautiful the model might be, how un-turd-like she is, or how hard the photographer has tried to frost the turd. "What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet?" I don't think so.

So-called photographers can apply all the Gaussian Blur, Diffusion Glow, or any number of other Photoshop effects on a crummy photographic image and it's still a crummy image. I know this too well. I was once a Photoshop abuser. I spent less time honing my photography skills and more time frosting turds and learning even more ways to frost turds.

Hi. My name is Jimmy and I'm a turd-frosting Photoshop-a-holic.

It seems to me there's a whole lot of photographers out there who shouldn't be permitted to claim the title, Photographer. Instead, a more honest claim would be to a more appropriate label, like Turd-frosting Photoshop-a-holic. And even regarding those skills, Photoshop skills that is, they often still suck! Sometimes even moreso!

I'm thinking this kind of stuff is an unfortunate by-product of the digital age we live in-- An age where craft and skill have too-often been replaced by auto-functions, engineering and algorithms that attempt to replace talent, and instant-pudding expectations. We don't look at the work, we look at the product. And if the product looks hot, that is, we've been deceived into believeing it looks hot, even if the underlying quality is not, many will Oooh! and Aahhhh! over it.

I'm not speaking, of course, about anyone reading this blog. If you're taking the time to read this, whether you agree with what I'm saying or not, it means you are, more than likely, a person who is serious about your craft. A person who is willing to invest your time in learning and improving your photography skills. Whether you've reached an accomplished level as a photographer or you're still on the lower ends of the learning curve, you are a photographer.

Ich bin ein Fotograf.

For me, photography is a never-ending learning experience. There's not a day that goes by in which I don't learn something new or discover something that will improve my skills. I view the work of others, I read extensively on the subject, I visit forums, I practice, I experiment, I imagine and envision new ways to do things. And when I try out these new things (that are often-times a product of the reading and forum-visiting and experimenting I do), they don't always work. In fact, it seems like, more often than not, they don't work. But it also seems like everytime I try something new, something that doesn't work, it sparks an idea for something that might work or does work! Determination and a willingness to try out new things often seems to pay off like that.

Okay, I'm done lecturing. I'm off my soapbox. Here's an image of a young lady, Cindy, who is easy enough on the eyes. (Even if I was guilty of Amputated Arm Syndrome when I shot this.) Maybe she'll help you, uhh... digest what was, possibly, an overblown rant I just spewed.