I was downloading a picture at work the other day from Caedes and a colleague saw me. He knows I post here and is aware of the site but I still prodded him by saying "you should have a look around for some wallpapers." His reply was interesting. "Well I have looked but its all pretty boring, just snapshots really. Very well taken snapshots, and some pretty scenes, but there's nothing that really hits you."
This rather got me thinking and I looked at the perm gallery and it does have a sameness to it as you scroll back. However, if, like I did, you scroll back down to page 429 of the permanent Photography Gallery (in date order) and have a look, there does seem to be a much greater variety of photography available, more interesting perspectives and certainly a wider range of subjects and styles than appears on pages 1-30. This could just be my impression, but I wonder.
I was in the VB yesterday and came across a picture of a woman in a hockey mask with her hair over her face, "Escape". I found it a very striking and powerful image and gave it a high mark. I looked at it afterwards. Its CI? 18. There is a B&W picture of a young man "Meditacion" in the new galleries at the moment, another quite powerful image. its CI? 7. Hotrocking's Pessimistic Petals is another example of someone posting an out of the box picture. His CI? 21. There are many other examples if you look. However, Jimbobedsel's "Crawling" gets 50. I am not saying it does not deserve it, it does, but the others deserve better.
The point I am trying to make is not so much that we apparently criticize imagination on this site with low CI marks (regardless of all the 'it doesn't matter' cries), but that we seem to be reinforcing this VB sameness with so very few of these type of pictures now making it into the permanent gallery. I feel we are stifling the very talent that will improve the quality of work on this site. I am not criticizing the voting system, that has been done enough elsewhere, I am criticizing the lack of imagination when it comes to placing pictures in the permanent galleries. It may be that these pictures I have mentioned will get there, but I somehow doubt it. They may not be the most popular downloads, or the prettiest pictures, but they add breadth to the site which it seems to be lacking at the moment.
This rather got me thinking and I looked at the perm gallery and it does have a sameness to it as you scroll back. However, if, like I did, you scroll back down to page 429 of the permanent Photography Gallery (in date order) and have a look, there does seem to be a much greater variety of photography available, more interesting perspectives and certainly a wider range of subjects and styles than appears on pages 1-30. This could just be my impression, but I wonder.
I was in the VB yesterday and came across a picture of a woman in a hockey mask with her hair over her face, "Escape". I found it a very striking and powerful image and gave it a high mark. I looked at it afterwards. Its CI? 18. There is a B&W picture of a young man "Meditacion" in the new galleries at the moment, another quite powerful image. its CI? 7. Hotrocking's Pessimistic Petals is another example of someone posting an out of the box picture. His CI? 21. There are many other examples if you look. However, Jimbobedsel's "Crawling" gets 50. I am not saying it does not deserve it, it does, but the others deserve better.
The point I am trying to make is not so much that we apparently criticize imagination on this site with low CI marks (regardless of all the 'it doesn't matter' cries), but that we seem to be reinforcing this VB sameness with so very few of these type of pictures now making it into the permanent gallery. I feel we are stifling the very talent that will improve the quality of work on this site. I am not criticizing the voting system, that has been done enough elsewhere, I am criticizing the lack of imagination when it comes to placing pictures in the permanent galleries. It may be that these pictures I have mentioned will get there, but I somehow doubt it. They may not be the most popular downloads, or the prettiest pictures, but they add breadth to the site which it seems to be lacking at the moment.