trainrider47 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> So Kevin, why has the fact that someone else has
> posted their photos already dimmed your enthusiasm
> for the event? Has rail photography become a
> competitive event instead of a fun hobby?
>
> Michael Allen
There are two aspects of this hobby. One is the personal satisfaction of being able to capture and process decent images of an event, and building a personal collection. For that, you don't need to post photos anywhere. A photographer can live like a hermit and spend his/her days with their nose buried in Photoshop or Lightroom and foam within the confines of their den. The second aspect is a need that most of us seem to have to share what we've experienced and get feedback with regard to what others think of our work. I think most of us are not satisfied with doing the hermit thing, which is why we post photos on-line.
When it comes to posting photos to very popular sites such as RP.net, I maintain that folks do it to get views, because views/likes/favorites/comments are the only way we get the feedback we are seeking. RP.net is the most popular, rail-related site on the internet, so if you really want people to look at your photos, that's where you go. Unfortunately, the audience there does rapidly tire of a particular event or subject. The more "generic" (photo line) photos that are posted from this week's charter, the fewer the views the late-comers will get. I have discovered that it does not matter if the later posts are better-composed or more expertly processed, the audience will never get past the thumbnail and simply think: "I'm not wasting my time clicking, I've already seen this." Unfortunately, in posting 20 photos (so far.....he's clearly not done), it appears as if this particular photographer's approach was to "scoop" all of the other participants, by posting every last scene from the hotel room, before any of the other participants even got home......heck, he posted many of them before the charter was even done. Yes, I could post mine.....but what's the sense? People will see that the thumbnails look roughly the same and move on. Now, if someone has something really innovative, that kind of image could definitely garner some serious looks and accolades. Unfortunately, most of us don't have a memory card full of those.
So yeah, in a sense, it does take a little of the fun out of it when the public has already seen every last scene from the charter before most of the folks have even made it home. In the past at least, most of the better shooters have limited their postings to 5-10 images that represent the best they have.....not every last thing they shot. Flickr is where you do that.
/Kevin Madore
