secret favourites

I think everyone (who posts work online for viewing by others) is guilty, to some extent, of playing to the audience. I mentally chastise myself for sometimes considering the possible response to a shot by someone else, even before committing to a solid opinion of my own about it! I’d like to think that a large element of that is simply looking for a second opinion in case I’m missing an obvious flaw, but in all honesty it tends to be more to do with the prospect of a bit of chin tickling. It’s difficult to avoid the little voice of your own ego…

But apart from all this brutal honesty, there was another point I was going to raise. There are some shots that I hesitate to open up for public consumption. Somehow, I have a nagging feeling of wanting to keep them from that open forum of critique that you indirectly encourage by posting online. I have a sense of defensiveness, as if I know that some people would look at the shot and give some inane technical advice to help me ‘improve’, rendering me unable to enjoy it without thinking “hmmm, maybe it should be sharper/more saturated/cropped” afterwards. I often wonder, is it because I know that realistically the photo is below par because of those technical blunders and I’m trying to kid myself out of caring? Or, is it that I can see past such boring parameters that the masses of armchair critics apply to so much amateur work, and identify something special that’s going on beside that? It feels like a gut response, and has refused so far to be clarified, reasoned, fathomed out. It mystifies me.

And then just to confuse things even more, you could have that same feeling and put it out there anyway, to an overwhelmingly positive response…