Ansel Adams - one of my mentors - was criticized too!

Among other things, I am a photographer. I post some of my photos on several different websites...for exposure (pardon the photo pun), peer approval and, to some extent, criticism.

For the most part, I just read the comments...use some of the information to improve my skills...and shitcan the rest. Photography, like all forms of art, is very subjective. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, etc, etc. In this digital age, photography seems to have also evolved into more of a science. Photographs are less seldom viewed on these sites for their visual impact, but quite literally placed under a microscope in search of "noise", artifacts, blooming, halo effects, pixelization, and luminance. They are literally "torn apart" down to the last pixel.

My photo editing program of choice is Adobe's Photoshop, an industry standard now for many years. Photoshop is, quite literally, a digital darkroom whereby even a novice photographer can apply some tried and true enhancement techniques in their computer. Some of these age-old techniques include, but are not limited to, cropping, dodging, burning, and color correction. Even my photographic mentor, Ansel Adams, spent more time in his darkroom than he did actually taking the pictures. Most people are not aware of this. His limitations in the early part of the 20th century speaks volumes when you view his images. Hiking miles into the Yosemite wilderness areas with a huge 8x10 studio camera, cumbersome wooden tripod, and a handful of 8x10 exposure plates required the use of a pack mule! And even then, he could only return to his darkroom with a few negatvies waiting to be developed. Not the hundreds of digital images now possible with modern digital cameras and memory cards. Adams would spend hours upon hours just composing each shot of Half Dome, or El Capitan, or the Merced River. On top of all this, he had to drive to Yosemite from his home in San Francisco back when roads were more like the Conestoga Trail than our modern highways. He was one dedicated artist!

So, I guess when I receive a critical line of comment on my photos concerning the atomic makeup of each pixel from viewing the image through an electron microscope...I get a bit defensive. Ansel Adams was not truly recognized as the incredible photographer he became until late in his career. Afterall, taking rich, black and white photos of mountains, and forests, and rivers in the middle of a depression was not a formula for "success". Certainly not a formula for "commercial success". Who could afford to buy such art back then? And, yes, he had his critics as well. But he pushed on.

In today's digital world wide web age...everyone is a critic. So be it. But when I receive moronic, unrelated, thoughtless criticism from some drooling, unqualified, envious website surfer photographer wannabe...I must refer them to my favorite comeback for these occurances.

"Although I appreciate your opinion...I am amazed how you could actually type on a computer keyboard and hold a crackpipe with your feet at the same time...while wearing a straightjacket!"

Of course, I have never actually written this response in a forum or comment section. It's almost as much fun just thinking it.