Re: NNG: Lerro Charter with Southern 530 and 4501 on March 12 & 13, 2018

Hi Kevin,

I see your point, but if all 53 people on the charter decided to post even a couple of shots on RP, most of them would be in the same position you are, at the back of the line. That implies that the hobby is a zero sum game. Have you considered that the people that click on the first shots and won't bother to look at later posts are probably not going to be giving you any useful critiques anyway? Post your shots and maybe you get fewer clicks but maybe they are of higher quality. People that know your work are likely to click on your images knowing they are going to see something good. That's why Flickr has a button to follow a particular photographer. The one that says "Never miss a photo by Kevin Madore."

Another approach is instead of taking all three or four runbys from approximately the same place, get creative. Run the risk of having some shots that fail. One well known photographer on the charter was probably in the actual photo line less than 10% of the time. When his shots finally appear, you bet people are going to be looking at them. He can even be standing next to you and his shot will be different and recognizable as his by its look.

RP has become a numbers game for photo of the day or week, but do you really need the ego boost to still enjoy taking train photos? As far as I know, the screeners choice is based on what the screeners liked, not the number of hits. Post good stuff and people will see it and enjoy it.

Michael Allen