amateur photographer - getting it off my chest

whitewash

whitewash

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am i the only person that thinks that the readers portfolio section has gone seriously downhill recently, some of the stuff they publish is dire. granted im not going to like everything, but in the past few issues the gallerys have been on the whole dreadful, luckily its bucked up a tad this week from dire depths of april the 8ths issue ("heres 3 uninspired tree and landscape shots i took with my expensive camera gear" and "heres a page of really crap shots taken by our camea club and sent in solely to get more memberships in". but still, come on! give us something to aspire to with our photography not something to go "pfffft dreadful"


another moan - i cant believe what was written in the E330 review (8th april)
it would be easy to dismiss the live view lcd provided wih the olympus e330 as a marketing gimick, designed to attract notice photographers upgrading from a digi compact camera. hoever it is exactly the sort of innovation we all hoped for
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please tell me your using the royal "we" (e.g I) as i certainly wasnt hoping for it, i think i might just have to punch the first person i see using an SLR camera with it stretched out infront of them like with a compact. id personally have written the same paragraph as...

"it would be easy to dismiss the live view LCD as a marketting gimmick, because lets face it, it is, its a brilliant idea to get rid of all of those oly e300's we have lying around as no one bought them as they sucked compared to the E1 and the e500, lets just modify them and sell them to unsuspecting upgraders on the back of the e500 and allow them to be really lazy photographers, nice one marketting department, cheques in the post"


apart from that this magazine is great it arrives on the shelves weekly, which means if i read it in 1 evening (as i usually do) i dont have a month to wait for the next one. its also as upto date as a publication can be with recent news. and it has a good Q+A section and a lovely words of the wise page by Mr R Hicks, who dishes out lots of top notch advice. oh and they gave me a free B+W film for my personal use once i can extract a film SLR from my old man. also if anyone read their bashing of the schweppes portrait prize it was sheer poetry, and absolutely bob on!
 
I've noticed in magazines and on the net, reviews where the 'reviewer' has obviously not used the product are getting more and more common. I still buy AP once in a blue moon, just to convince myself I was right ot stop the sub all those years ago :)
 
A live LCD screen on an SLR?? WTF for? :Ponders:

I stopped taking AP a gazillion years ago when the advertising pages far outweighed the actual photographic content.
 
Couldnt agree more, l find one the best features of using an SLR or any camera with a half decent viewfinder is that the viewfinder is the best deive for the job, it contains most if not all camera setting around the view, while allowing you to see exactly what is in your shot and to get the right composition.
When I use P&S cameras with their horrible little viewfinders, or the even newer ones that dont have a viewfinder anymore it drives me to despair because you cannot compose the shot anymore than roughly knowing what you have in shot. Also LCDs are renown for their poor performance in most daylight conditions, add to this its resolution is rarely suitable as a true indicator of the quality of the shot after its taken, let alone for use setting up the shot.
A bit off topic, but I see that Olympus only as a means to entice people used to a P&S who basically want a better camera, while still being able to use it as a P&S.

I find I try to stick to Practical Photography, and Digital Camera, if I buy any others it tends to be if I see an article that interests me in another magazine.

I do find that alot of the photography magazines will have a bias, or contradict themselves in their reviews, so I tend to take them with a pinch of salt, and look for more honest opinions in places like here if I need to make a buyers choice on hardware.
 
On a similar note, I sent a little rant into Photography Monthly, about Lezano and Cheung always using the magazine to oneup each other, with sly little digs all over. "Ignore Will he obviously doesn't know how to take a photo"
"At least I don't use an instamatic like Daniel"

Boo flamin hoo boys, put your willys away, or get a bloody room, I don't pay good money to read your playground tittle tattle.

Lo and behold the issue I expected it to be in? Cheung has buggered off from the mag...lol

Was it something I said? PMSL :D
 
i bought one issue of that magazine and yes there crappy image feedback really *would insert naughty naughty swear word here* me off for want of a better description. in AP's favour atleast malone seems to give a fair judgement of every image,
 
On the flip side, if the Readers photos are so bad, us lot have more chance of getting our own photo's published instead ?.......if we send them in ;)
 
I dug out a copy from the 70's when I had a photo published and the content and advice expected you to be an adult! So many of the articles in most of the mags seem to be aimed at Sun readers (sorry you look at the Sun - scan the Express and Mail, correct the Guardian and read te Times and Telegraph).

My gripe about many of them is the habit of printing text over coloured backgrounds and super glossy paper that reflect light so you spend your time trying to see the text through the dazzle!

Joined the Grumpy Old men brigade!
 
Fangman said:
Joined the Grumpy Old men brigade!
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Join?

JOIN?

I'm a Lieutenant my good man.
Next step up is Grumpmaster General, the highest order I can achieve.
I just haven't got enough moaning stars for that particular badge, but there's still time. :D
 
According to my tribe - I founded the society over 40 years ago!
 
im a fully paid up member according to my wife....


I have found that the standard of photos being published in DP and DC magazines has gone up, rarely do the post anything low-rent(havent had one of mine in for months now!)its encouraging to see, as some of the photos really do make you feel like getting out and getting similar shots
 
CT said:
I stopped taking AP a gazillion years ago when the advertising pages far outweighed the actual photographic content.
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That's my main reason for getting it nowadays, handy to check out if anyones got any decent s/h stuff before putting down the plastic.
 
Aperture Pornographer?

I usually only buy it if I'm buying or selling something. No-one actually reads it do they?
 
DJW said:
On the flip side, if the Readers photos are so bad, us lot have more chance of getting our own photo's published instead ?.......if we send them in ;)
Click to expand...


it might be easier, but look at it another way, would you not feel a greater sense of achievement if the quality was very high, rather than as it currently is, quite low, after all its not difficult to win an under 10's colouring competition when your aged 40 is it.

i will send in my pictures as i know they are of good enough quality to feature, but ill only do it when the quality of the portfolios increases, simply because id far rather there was some challange and achievement in getting your portfolio featured


we're not all after the £50:laugh1:
 
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