kathleen

Hey Kath, I know where your coming from with the barrage of happy snappers, and this being a “photography” site, But shit, I know where to find you all, It`s not bothering me in the slightest really…

Not that I expect you to agree, or disagree really, but I figure you`ve gotta take the good with the bad, and this place is still a damn fun place mostly. If it wasn`t I`d stop coming here,

The money thing is a very interesting point though.. This site is a marketplace, but also acts as a great community.. Would it be a lesser place if the selling side of things was removed? Yes, because it wouldn`t be able to exist in the first place…

I have no real point here.. I`m like that.

My lots of venting here. I agree with your last statement. For me, I don’t consider myself an artist. I take photos, mangle them up, paint and even draw. I consider myself a designer. I agree with what Danny said in Catalin’s post

All art is theft
All art is fraud
All art is created inside someones head

To me, this pretty much sums up a lot.

Thanks for raising this.

Hey, there’s an awful lot of photography here and some of it is fine art … but much more of it is … well … something else. As for money … for art? What a novel idea. Don’t think it will ever take off though. Love your work!

Photographers have been manipultaing photos well before photoshop came along and when I’m paid for a job I’m industry and artist for myself.

Intuitive Artist… That’s a GOOD one…

Yes Scott, points are points even when they are not… This community is most fun when it is interacting and pushing it’s own boundaries.

I HAVE A REASON TO CREATE AND AN AUDIENCE TO EXHIBIT TO CONSTANTLY
(more fun for me, but I don’t just do art, don’t just take photos and don’t just do art, even this blog is my art)

RB IS FREE PUBLICITY GODDAMMIT, If you need to SELL so badly hire me to design you and add and pay for it to be aired or displayed.

I have to admit though, I rarely even venture into the galleries any more, I find the ‘minds’ that interest me not just the art or the writing…

I don’t care, it’s all good! I’m both graphic designer and photographer and a blur in between. Just look at my portfolio – I’m not trying to pose as anything other than Helen McLean who does whatever the hell she likes doing at any given time.

woo yer, helen I know… I only raised this cause there are a few (i think) photographers who have left some comments on my ‘photography’ about things that honestly never even came into the equation…

I have a basic camera and if you saw my ‘snapshots’ before I overhauled them you’d be and offended photographer.

I can’t do editing for crap. :D
Anyone who thinks every shot they take is great is also deluded.

I’m not sure photography is necessarily attempting to capture an image as close to what the eye saw.
Is that the eye with or without polaroid sunglasses.
I certainly don’t see in black and white, plus there’s different coloured filters for b/w photography to alter contrast, tinted and graduated filters for colour photography. Print film is printed to look the most pleasing, not necessarily how it was. Slide film comes close to capturing it as it was, but then filters can still be used, and different film types will give different saturations and colours.

Now that most of these effects (most everything but polarisation!) are achievable on the computer, the line between photographer and digital artist/graphic designer is blurring.

What bugs me though, is people who manipulate their photos, and even do a damn fine job of it, yet get offended when it’s pointed out, denying that they did. Even when it’s obvious.
Everyone can manipulate a photo. But can everyone do it well? There’s still just as much skill involved.

See I want to learn all that stuff Steven, maybe then I’ll make it past the shortlist… Taking photography seriously is only something I began to do when I started getting the awesome feedback I got from other photographers and their is something to be said for… wait for it…

THE ARTISTIC EYE??? WHO HAS ONE OF THOSE?

I like to think I do!

Of course, feel free to disagree. The other think is altering images pixel by pixel when you can already draw and paint does tend to make translating the lighting a bit easier.

AAARRRRTTTTTTT !!!!!!!Is anyone going to mention work that has subject matter that is of cultural significance within the history of ideas ? You know the kind institutions spend money on so that students and future civilisation will study and refer to in their own practice or am I just being high brow?

AAARRRRTTTTTTT !!!!!!!Is anyone going to mention work that has subject matter that is of cultural significance within the history of ideas ? You know the kind institutions spend money on so that students and future civilisation will study and refer to in their own practice or am I just being high brow?

I have to agree with Helen.
I think I’ll do a separate posting on this one. I feel pretty strongly about it and reading the various things in this theme (not this thread though Kathleen) I feel quite nettled. I like to think Redbubble is a tolerant and encouraging community for people at various stages of their art WHATEVER that may be. Do we really need tags to give us artistic identity?

wow, I was responding after Helen. That’ll teach me for pondering each word!

I agree with The Flying Lizards.

I generally don’t agree with myself. I’m of no use here. But I need a new hat.

gosh Anne.. u sure pondered for a long time…...hehehe

Well … that was fun. :)

What the? Man what’s happening to this place? It’s like its starting to devour itself with overthinking.

LOL ^^ xD I must admit. Blogs are bringing out a lot.

Slow week I think

Narelle, I agree because art is an important part of the evolution of the human soul. What we we know about Religious societies if not for the Renaissance, not high brow at all and that is something that is to discover…

There is art for arts sake and there is important art and there is political satyr and on and on and on… Not all art can be important but not all important things can be art.

Anne… don’t stress my love, I feel a wind of concern in other places this way too…

REDBUBBLE IS A COMMUNITY OF ARTISTS WHO COME HERE TO SHARE AND INTERACT (AND MAYBE YOU MIGHT SELL SOMETHING)

Personally, I only buy the work of artists here that have a special place in my heart because I have connected with them personally. That’s why us bubble fossils here, need to band together as nurturers of the Bubble values.

ALSO, check the About Us Video

This is the bubble philosophy… Yay!!!

My points were purely based around the ‘technical critique comment’, just make sure you know what you are looking at before you make the judgement otherwise you don’t look professional and some may think you don’t know what your talking about…

Good business practice is all.

Damn Lucan, I need you all here, it isn’t a rant without you and I only did this to get you guys going…. come on I know you feel something… blurt it out…

Why do I always get the urge now to type WooooYYerrrr. Did I spel it right?

Amen Sister!!! I’ve been thinking the same thing for a while.

I don’t like this “Digital Art” banner myself. You can’t put someone who does the Vector Goodness, in the same basket as someone who “manipulates photos.”
Digital Artists? ok, that they are…
Digital Illustrators? i can raise my hand, as lots of you can, but they can’t…

If you (generally) have to call what I do & someone who is a bit passioanate with Plastic Wrap the same? I’ll be sick!

I’m sick of hearing about the money side too, unfortunately it makes the world go ‘round.

I would think some Graphic Designers have some Photographers shaking in their boots!!

Wooo Yerrr to THE VECTOR… VECTOR USED TO BE EVERYWHERE HERE…

WE NEED OUR OWN TIME OUT CORNER!!!!

NEED TO DO MORE VECTOR NEED TO DO MORE VECTOR…

They’re all just labels, it is only the final product that matters and if the creator is happy great, and if someone else likes it so be it.

This blog is a very ineteresting study of human nature.

And the fact I can’t spell

MELINDA, WHERE IS REDRAG?? THAT LITTLE Publication has potential… Bubble Collab lab was interested in sending you an expression of interest but I haven’t seen it a while?

lol – vector thanks

Why let society put you in a box when you can do it yourself.?? Digital artists….whatever!!

Enough with the debates over labels and semantics.

Art is Art is Art ad nauseum…..

Yes the bull has been in the pasture but clearly there is a need for him. I’ll open the gate and let him open the flood gates. Look out next monday. Snort.

who cares what ART is this is about professionals leaving little posts around that make them not look so professional cause they don’t actually know what they are talking about… /

if you use comments to get attention than that is great, it’s how you all know my little avatar… but you need to know what you are talking about if you are going to comment on the technical OTHERWISE YOU ARE WASTING YOUR TIME AND SELLING YOURSELF SHORT… point your advertising to yourself, don’t just spurt some generic thing, spend the time to look at the image and focus on a detail and remark about it, find something no one else has commented on, make a joke, just favourite it…

We don’t want to be derogatory but we don’t want to make fun or see people get embarrassed.

IT’S ALL PART OF THE NURTURING.

Are you a taurus Melinda… Maybe you could use this hee he… can’t wait.

You go girlfriend! I reckon the red rag would be keen to hang out with you. He adoresw anger. Well I’m not a taurus I’m an Aries. Whaddeva the hell that means. Quiet and gentle no doubt. And a dab hand at roast lamb and flower arranging. But enough of my sweet ramblings I’ll try and track down the bull. Red Rag! Reeeedd Raaaagggg! Oh no, he’s humping Lucan’s leg….

Man I was hangin with the rag at one time you may remember, it worked for the best… I’m the 21st April, cusp girl so I am technically both an Aries and a taurus… HAAA look out.

Yes, I see Arian traits there… definitely!

Hey everybody is getting very precious about what this site is and what they are. Maybe we can just agree that image is all. Yep thats it. Image is All.

I am an artist who likes to use cameras but also paints and draws but mostly cameras. That doesn’t make me a graphic designer or and illustrator or a photographer. It just means I’m an artist who uses what ever tool is at hand.

So Kathleen telling people they are fools because they can’t look at an image and just channel from the universe weather the creator is a photographer or an interior designer or a bus driver, is well its bloodly insulting and arrogant as well.

If you want to put yourself around as a sweetie/ nurturing/know all about it/ designer/ whatever then maybe you could start by leaving the insults for your family and friends to put up with.

This started out as a disscussion about ‘popular v quality’ not lets slag off anyone who is not a graphic designer.

Now it’s getting interesting…

Should we just be doing or art for ourselves,it dos’nt matter how we produce it or what we are.i think what i like about this site is the variety of whats on show be it photograph, g/design,paintings.

Hey Juilee, I completely understand how you could see that in my presentation and probably my ego is getting the better of me… I have been just collecting this stuff a bit and sometimes the gate opens…. but you do misinterpret… I wasn’t calling anyone a fool, just meant it in the ‘tarot’ sense of innocent, naive… just that… there are words and there are words…

I don’t know what treatment means. Could someone tell me please. Cause I get photographers saying things about my images that make no sense at all to me creatively speaking… If there is something technical about the way I have manipulated an image than it was purely from a conceptual perspective not a photographic one. I perhaps didn’t raise this well, but I was referring really to what people have said to me at times and that also doesn’t mean I cheapen their intent.

Just trying to figure out if I am in fact a photographer with what I do… I don’t know… labels, but knowing the boundaries of what I am labeled as personally sure helps when considering opportunities (paid OR unpaid).

It also helps when filing the images on my hard drive. I am groping for definition of technique in an age when what I understood the finer craft of one artform to be have crossed over into another… thankyou Adobe.

This isn’t really about the site necessarily also as people getting the most from the time they spend clicking looking at and commenting on images…

well… sorry didn’t mean to upset.

Does the tag ‘Artist’ not suffice?

well… sorry didn’t mean to upset.

Kathleen. I’m not offended. I think you were expressing your point of view based on your observation and comments received from others. So please don’t apologise for this.

‘treatment’ in my understanding encompasses everything, from technique and technical application, to framing, to selection (in photographic terms) of what is included or excluded or over exposed or under explosed. Use of tools, use of post production including the photoshopping you may or may not do – treatment includes what you don’t do to your image as well as what you do to it. It’s holistic. Correct me if I’m wrong, but it’s not a photographic term but merely a term applied to how something is created.

... my take anyway.

Kathleen only you can define yourself as what you are or what to be seen as. If you don’t want to be a photographer fine. Think of a label that you can live with but labelling others with put downs in order to find your own boundaries is well its pretty poor form.

Also photography its self is in the middle of redifining itself. So its hard for people who produce images to know what to call themselves. Way back when photography was first developed it put painters into a total headspin. Painting is dead! OMG the sky is falling! was on everybodys lips. But painting didn’t die, it went off and reivented itself and along came surrealism and impressionism and cubisim and all the rest of modern 20th C painting.

Now with the arrival of digital imaging and photoshop et al photographers and photography generally is doing the same thing. Its in the thros of reinventing itself as something new and amazing. But its still early days and before long there will be a new movement and new labels and all of that.

Personally I think digital imaging will force analouge photography to take a good hard look at itself and it will most likely become a new way into artmaking in its own right. Digital proliferation has in a lot of cases made photographic artists ( like myself ) turn to alternative techniques and exploring things like the very low tec capture and very high tec digital output. And there are some great artist on this site who work like that. Like Helene Kippert with her dreamy drawings taken through photoshop and uploaded as digital artwork.

Wonderful stuff but what is the name for someone like that? Is she a painter or a photographer or a digital imager or what? And does it matter what the label is if the artwork is good.

You will find your own definition for yourself but please don’t tell people they are fools
if they don’t know what your art is when you are not sure yourself.

Well said Julie. Agree, the art world is constantly redefining itself.

What’s with the obsession to label or classify people anyway? As Helen McClean so succintly puts it, I’m not trying to pose as anything other than Helen McLean who does whatever the hell she likes doing at any given time.

Call me anything you like but please don’t call me late for dinner.:-)

I wasn’t meaning fools as in stupid, but if… oh bugger it, I musn’t be getting it accross… ho hum… thanks Juilee…

.. I use forums like this to philosophise and help me find definition… I rarely leave the house this is cross education…

just don’t want people to waste their energy, maybe I shouldn’t care.

This is not a waste of energy. We both care and care enough to converse about it. Which is good. And interesting. And positive as well. Sometimes words are so loaded. Which is why I mostly stick to images. You can make your own mind up then. But its good to chat in these forums and learn what others think. Thanks for talking back :)

wooooo EEEEEE LEROY!!!! SURE IS PROODY URP IN HEAVEN!!! i’m gonna read all this in a minute (thanks GOD)

Juilee(very cool name spelling by the way) you make a great point especially about the issues painters had when photography came out.

This site is for artists, the creative, the nuts and all others who enjoy the visual and written medium.

Kathleen, one thing I do have to say is that photoshop is, in the end, just a tool to make the creative thought get onto the paper. It works the same way as posing people in a shot, or moving the lighting around. It’s value is the same as the camera that takes it, a specialist tool that assists in creating our vision.

If we have a crap idea it won’t help it or change it. I think I can say I’ve tried that enough times to prove it correct.

Hi everyone,

my 2 cent worth for those who are interested. . . .

I found this site and was excited! I had found away that I could sell my work. (see i called it my work . . . . hehehehe) I posted ad waited. . . . a few comment came and went and no sales. . . . I looked, I posted in forums, I got ideas . . . . soon it wasn’t about money or selling works, but more about trying things and joining in with other like minded people.

Some times i do wonder if I should be here or not, and sometimes I just have fun. . .

BTW, I think it’s great you got everyone thinking about it and posting!

OKAY….... WELL NOW I’M GONNA YELL THE LOUD FUNNY WORDS!!!!!!!
..... I DON’T GIVE A RATS REKKIE IF I NEVER MAKE A BRASS RAZOO OUT OF RED WIBBLE…... NO ONE HERE IS MAKING A LIVING OUT OF THIS SITE ANYWAY…. ARE THEY????
I JUST SOLD ANOTHER ONE OF MY ORIGINAL PAINTINGS TO A PRIVATE BUYER FOR FIVE HUNDRED BUCKS….. THAT WAS TODAY!!!
DON’T CONGRATULATE ME ….IT HAPPENS ALL THE TIME….. I HAVE BEEN LUCKY ENOUGH TO HAVE ACQUIRED A PATRON WHO COLLECTS MY LANDSCAPE PAINTINGS ON A REGULAR BASIS…...
THAT’S WHY HE GETS THEM FOR 500 BUCKS.
TO ANYONE ELSE ITS 1200 BUCKS. IN PUBLIC GALLERIES, TOURIST TRAPS AND EXHIBITIONS IT’S EVEN MORE!!!!
AND THIS IS THE BEST BIT I JUST USE MY BEST PHOTOGRAPHS PRINT THEM AT SOME CHEAP ASS PHOTO JOINT ON CANVAS AND PAINT STRAIGHT OVER THEM!!!!
IT’S JUST LIKE MATCHING COLOUR AND THEN COLOURING IN OVER AN ALREADY EXISTING IMAGE…... I CALL IT VALUE ADDING
(I PAY ABOUT 80 BUCKS FOR A PRINT)
I USED TO JUST PROJECT FROM SLIDES AND WORK THAT WAY BUT THIS NEW WAY IS MUCH EASIER…... MY POINT IS THIS:

WE LIVE IN A TIME AND SOCIETY WHERE (AS INDIVIDUALS) WE HAVE MORE FREEDOM, INFORMATION, CREATIVE TOOLS, TECHNOLOGY AND PLACES LIKE THIS SITE TO CRAM OUR LITTLE IMAGINATIONS FULL OF INSPIRATION AND ART!!!!
AS A PERSON IF YOU SAY YOU ARE AN ARTIST THEN YOUR GRAPHIC DESIGN, PHOTOGRAPHY OR LAST SHIT YOU TOOK IS ART!!!!
AS LONG AS YOU SAY SO!!!
WHO AM I TO ARGUE????
THIS IS THE MAIN MANIFESTO OF THE M.P.G. (midnight painters guild)
WE BELIEVE IN ART UNIVERSAL, IF IT CAN BE DONE…. IT CAN BE ART
NO MORE PIGEON HOLING PEOPLE INTO GENRES …. I DON’T JUST PAINT I ALSO MAKE SCULPTURES, WRITE STUFF, TAKE PHOTO’S, BUILD STONE CIRCLES ONTOP OF MOUNTAINS AND THROW ELECTRICAL APPLIANCES OFF OF CLIFFS …... IF YOU WANT PROOF I HAVE A DVD THAT I MADE…. YES! VIDEO ART ASWELL!!! IF YOU WANT A COPY LET ME KNOW I WOULD BE DELIGHTED TO POST YOU A COPY….. JUST LET ME KNOW.
FINALLY THIS SITE SHOTULD BE A LAUGH!! WE ARE ALL ADULTS HERE…..
SO CHILL THE FARK OUT HAVE FUN!!!!
DON’T LET THE COMMERCE GET IN THE WAY OF THIS FANTASTIC RIDE…...
BE AN ARTIST …WHAT A LIFE!!! .........Whippety KRACK!!!!

Wow!

Great, important discussion. One of the big things we are thinking about! We want the place to be inclusive (even poor artists can get better – and they shop!) while at the same time ensuring quality is recognised. One thing we are going to be doing which will help a lot is institutte groups whre qualty can be much more easily recognised.

scam! great idea though. you got more cred than I gave you cred for haaa haa ha, you know though I have nothin’ so, no one should take anything I say for any reason in any context… far out… damn that eclipse… who’s Leroy?...

thanks Dennis, you are a fun person to have around.

thanks Pilgrim, it took a long time to get the nerve up to raise this one. I know everything gets pixelated in the middle but I rarely cruise the galleries anymore and that’s because I don’t always want to look at photos and more so at the traditional and ‘digital art’ (crude description as tbo put it). I stick to the watchlists, but that makes it harder to find the new stuff unless it’s by coincidence. Good luck figuring it out, tough job!

i wrote a stupidly long thesis for my (masters in design) back in 1998 on the development of commercial based photography from aesthetic & technical context…don’t get me started kathleen cause its boring as hell. i had chapters & chapters devoted to the big bad world of digital versus conventional photography….footnoted like mad from reading a tonne of books/serials/articles, inteviews conducted etc etc

technology changes everything. & it waits for no-one to catchup either.

lecturing at a higher education level my graphic design students have a very different focus to photoshop than my photography students do… the photographers get far more high end retouching techniques taught than what im expected to teach photoshopwise to the graphic designers.

i can pretty much tell whats enhanced, whats not & what’s a fluke. it depends on your level of knowledge, technical proficiency how long you spend looking at an image etc but i certainly wouldnt hold it against someone if they got it wrong as we’re all not professionals here on RB!

enjoy what you do & hey if RB has alot of images/artwork coming thru that dont do it for you maybe its time to move on…i no longer spend as much time here as i used to (not sure how long i’ll stay) i like to test the waters & move on…but i have met a handful of fab people here that i like chatting to & writers i would continue to read even if I did head off. i must say the comps are pretty great & RB has been a supportive creative community most definitely:)

Don’t go! Think about it before you do it Ange. This place needs people like you!

I was hoping you’d get in on this Ange from your academic perspective and I am really glad you did… I value your teachings here heaps and would be really sad if you did head off. I am only here so much cause 1. home with kids and doing some freelance. 2. get bored easily and don’t give a rats about anything else on the internet and 3. need to fuel my fire to burn creative energy and this does it in every way.

I’ve been involved in heaps of creative fields, and even when I was doing administration I was working in creative areas and around creative people. I have done events and promo and pr and worked in video and government and design and hell… heaps of variety in my career. Now I’ve decided I am an artist cause that’s the easiest way to say creative. Sometimes I am professional sometimes I am not. But being at home I miss out on all the advantages of being in a creative group environment to help me professionally develop and I have learned more here than you can know. Which is excellent.

Sorry again to anyone if you took offense to my ideas, I thought this topic was worthy of discussion for some reason at the time and posted it, sort of just a testing ground for thoughts expansion…

I didn’t take offense Kathleen, what you stated was a very valid point.

I wish I could paint or draw, but I can’t, so when I found digital photography I embraced it!!

As my profile says, I am now looking at my photographs pretty much as a painter or designer looks at a blank page … a starting point for a vision of something I saw in my head, and want to develop past the photograph stage.

I have decided that I’m gonna call myself a phARTographer!! (At least I won’t come off as the slightest bit pretentious after that!!)

I understand what you mean about feeling swamped by photographs – but I think both have their merits and beautiful/inciteful/brilliant images will prevail no matter which medium created them.

What is art ???

PPS Webgrrl … I just read my post – please don’t think that the pretentious bizzo was aimed at the word that I cheekily borrowed and twisted!! :)

its definitely a worthy discussion dont worry:)

& your design portfolio work kathleen is very impressive…you have a great intuitive feel for design & professional work you should be most proud of indeed. i’d link that folio somewhere obvious for all to see!

on the other hand being an artist is v cool i agree. gives you creative freedom like there’s no tommorow…i really do think its fab that a place like this exists (online) especially if your at home not in a creative environment as you say & i do hope this place continues to grow as a thriving creative community supporting people like yourself who learn & really grow…

unfortunately i am time poor (more often than not) but havent left yet:)

Michman is right Kathleen: you can’t polish a turd.

If your idea’s are crap to start with they won’t turn out well and you won’t be happy with them, manipulated /designed or not.

And for the record, Melinda’s comments were worth the price of admission alone – “now it’s getting interesting”....pure gold.

I think I lost the point of this post around halfway down the page – Especially with all of STRINGER’s yelling.

I use this place to waste time when I can’t focus. The potential to sell some of my photos or art is a bonus. Everything else is ….well….everything else.

To me art is art I dabble in it all. I photograph, draw, do some graphic design stuff, I`m not sure what you call it. Manipulate photos add stuff, remove stuff, play with it…till I think it is somewhat good to me… I don`t think all mine is the greatest that is for sure!!! Each individual has their own tastes in Art or whatever you want to name it. If someone said I manipulated a photo… well sometimes I do… sometimes I don`t. No biggie! I`m not a critic.. Far from it. I have a tendency like most of us to speak what I see or feel. Not ever meaning intentionally to hurt someone else. If I ever do I apologize with all my heart. I`m not one to want to cause people pain.

As for the money stuff. I don`t expect a damn cent. It would be sweet for sure. I have sold some things outside of here also. Calendars with photos manipulated or digitally compromised or enhanced… I don`t know what you want to call it, embellished even. Call it what you will…I care not. Art is Art… Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. What is right for you can be wrong for me.. It`s ok… Really…I wouldn`t put someone down or think I am any better than they are. Nor will I think they are way above me. Some have a better understanding of photography or graphics or digital imagery.. It doesn`t make them any better a person than me. It may make them a better artist, photographer, ect, ect. Everything I have learned I learned on my own. No educational instruction, no courses, and I`m still learning. I learned one thing from this column. Not to say a whole lot on the comment areas cause although you may mean well, people can misconstrue what you say and take it not the way it is meant. The type written word leaves out the look in your eyes and the sound or tone of your voice. So it can never truely come across as you wish it to sound. I am speaking outloud softly as I type this. I`m sure hubby thinks I`ve lost my marbles. However, that is ok.. He`s probably right and he` s looking for them I`m sure… laters all and have a fun time … I don`t care what kinda art-work you do..as long as YOU are doing what YOU enjoy the most!

Wow, this really went off didn’t it!

I think having an artistic eye is 90% of the struggle. Having an idea in your head, visualising it and making it happen. Photography just means you do this with a camera instead of a pencil. There’s a perception that it’s easy and anyone can do it, but heck, I can draw and paint. Can’t do it well. If I spent 15 years doing it in my spare time like I have photography, I might start getting better at it.

Biggest struggle for me is I don’t feel i’m artistic. And I still have a whole lot to learn on the technical side. But, it’s something I enjoy, and I think there’ll always be something new to learn. It’s something to look forward to.

Oh. And I really hate when people talk about the ‘treatment’ of a photograph. Can’t pinpoint why. It kind of reminds me of when someone says, “Wow, that’s a great photo. You must have an expensive camera.”

kathleen – i didn’t read the comments – too many – but i wanted to say – i don’t claim to ‘be’ an artist a ‘photographer’ a ‘graphic’ anything or even a ‘writer’ – i take some photos – with basic equipment and have fortunately captured some interesting sites.
some poeple have enjoyed looking at these – that’s nice.
i sold one print – vey nice – and i write bits and pieces here and there on this site – all for fun!
i have a professional career and this is a hobby for me – and i enjoy the start contrast from my work and the light hearted and interesting images, ideas, writing and comments people post and share – that’s it for me!
i can get a bit addictive – as i do loook forward to reading what’s going on where – and to tell the truth i like reading between the lines – yes i psychoanalyse a bit – that’s ok – can’t help it – trained to. but otherwise i really enjoy this site.
sometimes i get the feeling there are some ‘holier than thou’ posts made that can irritate me as they tend to be judgemental even when claiming not to be but that’s o.k. – eahc to their own i suppose – as long as there’s respect for individuals to be individuals that’s ok by me.

suzanne

You are all giving me an identity crisis! What am I? An artist? A graphic designer? A photographer? All of them? Do I need to be one or the other?

Seriously, I am so confused right now…... :(

Hi Kathleen,

Just going back a bit, I’m one of the people who made a fool of themselves leaving comments like “nice treatment” on people’s work (not yours, so don’t worry). However, I see many other images on which I don’t post comments. There are yet those on which I leave whole texts.

Now, would it make you feel better if I swapped the word “treatment” by “manipulation”? Or if I wrote long thesis about what’s obvious in your creations? Or take a totally different approach by not leaving any comments whatsoever because “I lack the technical knowledge” to comment on an image that should, before any kind of knowledge, please the eye? Following these cheeky points above, you must be also upset about people who “cool” and “awesome” your works.

The reason why I favour an image (I’m using the word “image” to be more generic – I’d use “picture”, but you might misunderstand and I’m not trying to buy a fight): I want to go back to it at a later stage – for leisure, inspiration etc.

This means that not every work that I see and like will get favourited. For those, I like leaving the recognition that I appreciate what the artist has done, making short comments. I don’t suppose that bothers anyone (apart from you).

That said, there’s something that does bother me on redbubble: People don’t make suggestions nor constructive criticism, although I’m not sure redbubble’s interface would support that without making it a big mess of things. Maybe a colour tagging to the comments would help… but let’s not digress.

I hope I don’t sound too pissed off or rude. Just thought I’d give my point of view on this matter.

Cheers,
Nando.

To make life more interesting, there is now a program that converts digital pictures into Vector images, and it does it quite nicely.
I am an amateur photographer and pick up classes here and there (mostly over the Internet) and read and read and read. I read photography books like others read novels.
I am happy to receive criticism from the academic end of things. I am also very happy to receive comments or criticisms from non academic artists. If my photograph doesn’t recieve a certain number of views, I cull it out and go back to the drawing board on it.
When I comment on work, I give my honest opinion, from my perspective and from what I am seeing in an image. The real beauty of art is that it can be translated in many different ways. Any comments coming from this site should be taken in that light.

well said derid