What apology? I never saw you make an apology, ironic or otherwise. The fact is, you started slagging off the butterfly shot and being quite insulting and personal, thinking it was mine.. full of childish glee at the thought of getting one over on me
when it wasn't. What you've actually done is slagged off some random strangers work because it was taken on a phone. Well done gear snob
You'd never apologise though, as you think I don't deserve one: Just because I speak disparagingly about "bird on twig" photographs, so you'll act like a petulant child
Reeeaaaally....
I'd never exclude someone from a competition because of their gear. I would never disallow someone from a camera club award because their gear didn't allow the same sharpness as the gear snobs.
Why "an artist" in quotes to indicate sarcasm? You've made it quite clear in the past that you have nothing but distaste for anyone who thinks photography is anything more than merely recording stuff, but seriously... you honestly think there's nothing more to photography that gear and science, and sharpness and depth of field? If so, I feel sorry for you. The world must have no beauty if the only beauty you can see is on the surface in pretty pictures.
What a load of crap. So I should just be constantly out there? Artists do not debate? LOL. You've already readily admitted you're not an artist in any way, shape or form, and that commend cements the fact in place, because you clearly do not know many artists. Art is MEANT to CREATE debate! That's part of what it's FOR!
You're just making stuff up here. You know nothing. You have the stereotypical view of an artist as some tortured soul, who cuts Himself off (always him in the eyes of the ignorant) from the world... working isolation.. possibly cutting parts oh His ear off etc etc....
It IS your humble opinion yes, because you're not making any sense, and it's clear you don't know any artists. Artists LOVE debate and discussion about art, just as camera club types love discussion about gear and lenses. Why wouldn't ANYONE discuss what they are passionate about with like minded people? You act as if artists aren't even people!
Why are you explaining this? No one's debating your, or why you take images. Why are you making this about you?
Yeah... talking of selective quotation and putting spin on things: I said on page ONE.....
As you've already said yourself, with just recording stuff that happens a long way away, then you're gonna need a long lens and certain gear to do it, yes. However... the OP's question was...
Jesus..... sometimes, people are hard work. How else did you expect this debate to go?
So yeah.... the debate was there from the word go. Some people need gear because they're not creative photographers and just need to get a sharp image of a bird on a twig, and some are creating stuff from imagination and feeling. Each to their own. People who create conceptual work will not understand why you spend vast amounts of cash on equipment to get a shot of a bird on a twig when there are already so many shots of that bird on other twigs in existence, or why it matters so much to you that it's YOUR shot or not. What you are doing Sir... is not photography... it is hunting. You are collecting hunting trophies. That's what your images are... hunting trophies.
You on the other hand will never see the point in creating work that promotes thought, debate, and challenges people's idea of what art should be, or how people think about certain things -- or anything that challenges accepted norms. To you, art is a pretty picture and something you'd want over your mantle piece.
You simply do not understand the appeal in what artists do. At least I understand what you do though - maybe not why... but I understand what. You just merely brush aside what artists do with that most dismissive, and frankly insulting mechanism of the internet age the "inverted commas".
So yeah.... carry on making sarcastic comments about "artists" all you want. It doesn't change the reality that a talented photographer in petty much most circumstances can wipe the floor with most hobbyists with any gear you place in their hands because all the work is already going on their heads.... they've already taken the photograph in their heads... they just need to find a way to et the gear to show it to you. Maybe you'll never understand that way of thinking, but it gives you no right to "insult" people.
Another slightly annoying trait you seem to have is that you assume that when I talk of great photographers and great artists, you behave as if I'm talking about myself. Why is that? I've never named myself... I've not posted up my own work as an example of greatness in this thread... I offer no personal anecdotes, or indeed do anything to infer I'm talking about myself, yet you behave as if I have.
Why do you behave as if I threaten you? I'm sure I don't... but you certainly start bristling like a hedgehog in any thread I'm in and start wit the defensive inverted comma comments about art and artists like a shot across my bows. Why is that?
Can't be arsed checking that for typos....
I'd agree that you can take very nice posed portraits, still life and landscapes with very large difficult to load gear but war photography might be a bit more hazardous and the more candid and spontaneous would be pretty difficult too.
