Thinking of quitting altogether. I cannot seem to get out of the 4's. Maybe I just need better equipment, but I am frustrated by my poor performance. Guess I thought I had a good eye. I seem unable to translate that into good photography.
Wow, I've been there man. All I can tell you is just because the voters don't see your vision doesn't mean it sucks. I try to never shoot for the voters, I think too many people do that. I shoot what I like, and what I think meets the challenge. Sometimes, I'm way off base, sometimes my shots really do suck, but at the end of the day, that's all part of the growing process. So, my advice would be to sit back, watch some future challenges, and enter one when you feel confident that your shot is stellar. Personally, for me, its all about learning something new. If I shot a 5.5 and I don't learn squat, its not nearly as effective as scoring a 4.5 and learning some new technique that may eventually score me a 7. Try on your next challenge not shooting to score well, but shoot for what you enjoy and try to learn something. At least that way, if your shot flops, you still got something out of it. Just my two cents, mileage may vary :)
Thanks. I am learning, and trying some new things. And I do like my pics. I just needed a friendly reminder to enjoy my art despite what others may think.
Thinking of quitting altogether. I cannot seem to get out of the 4's. Maybe I just need better equipment, but I am frustrated by my poor performance. Guess I thought I had a good eye. I seem unable to translate that into good photography.
Wow, I've been there man. All I can tell you is just because the voters don't see your vision doesn't mean it sucks. I try to never shoot for the voters, I think too many people do that. I shoot what I like, and what I think meets the challenge. Sometimes, I'm way off base, sometimes my shots really do suck, but at the end of the day, that's all part of the growing process. So, my advice would be to sit back, watch some future challenges, and enter one when you feel confident that your shot is stellar. Personally, for me, its all about learning something new. If I shot a 5.5 and I don't learn squat, its not nearly as effective as scoring a 4.5 and learning some new technique that may eventually score me a 7. Try on your next challenge not shooting to score well, but shoot for what you enjoy and try to learn something. At least that way, if your shot flops, you still got something out of it. Just my two cents, mileage may vary :)
Sirashley is completely right. If I look back over my lowest-scoring images, it's about 50-50 between shots that I look at now and go, OK, I've really learned a lot since then and now I see how that could definitely have used improvement, and shots that I still love even though one specific group of people don't.
Also, for a long time I didn't enter weekly challenges because I was discouraged by exactly what you're talking about, but I was still here doing side challenges. You might try some of those. (I'm organizing a photo-a-day one for May, for example, here.) Those have a much greater emphasis on commenting and learning and being nice to each other and appreciating each other's stuff, and images that would tank with the voters because they don't have that "DPC look" are often more appreciated in that setting.
Stick around. Don't leave like I did. :) (Mostly, actually, I stopped doing things here for a long while because I was moving and in school and incredibly busy and couldn't keep up with side challenges anymore, and then for a while I just was hardly taking any pictures at all. But there WAS that 4.7 on that one picture that I STILL really love. :) )
Hang on in there Teran
Just have a look at some of the multi ribbon winners, even they have images that score low so it's just a case
of what people here like rather then a direct comment on ability as such IMO
As far as this challenge goes, bit of a nose dive over night :(
Thanks. I am learning, and trying some new things. And I do like my pics. I just needed a friendly reminder to enjoy my art despite what others may think.
Exactly. Besides, you've only entered four challenges and you already have one photo that scored higher than a 6.000 -- that's pretty good. In fact, if you click on your camera name in your profile, you'll see you are on the front page for highest rated photos taken with that model. So cheer up.
Wow. This is the biggest jump in score that I've ever got! Started at 4.667 now 6 hours later I'm at 5.04. Still not a great score but it's been rising all day.
Uh Oh I'm getting scared. Someone is messing with me now. I'm not complaining though. I'll take a .1 increase daily.
I guess I did not get the intention of my shot across correctly. I thought I had a great idea - and I thought it was shown correctly in my photo, but according to the comments, people are seeing it as a defect, not realizing what my intention actually was. I think that is hurting my score the most. I am kicking myself now for doing it in the first place. Maybe someone can give me some feedback after the challenge to see if anyone saw what I was really trying to do.
