Some thoughts on photography critique

October 3rd, 2011 by Melanie Martin

When we started this blog for women photographers, Becks and I agreed that we wanted to enable women to share their work without the worry of ridicule, mean comments and patronizing peers. I truly believe that we all started somewhere once and we all still journey to somewhere else… this is the story of life and this is certainly the case for photography.

I have been a member of many photography clubs – both online and offline – and one thing they all had in common: overall a nice group, interesting people but with a few of them confusing critisicm with a license to be mean… especially those of the gang who were new to the game. I simply cannot see how comments like: “my mother could shoot that better with her 10 year old nokia phone.” or “you call yourself a professional photographer.” could ever be useful … I myself had comments thrown at me that called me a waste of space and how do I dare to charge money for what I do.

Now, for my part, my photography can do with critique. I value critique because it allows me to get better, it may not always be what I want to hear but I can accept it. It’s the reason why I am member of these forums and photographic societies in the first place. So I do appreciate criticism that says: “if you had not chopped her hand off at the wrist, then the shot would have been better.” or “shooting this frame with a different lens would have improved the outcome” – This is something I can work with, something I can implement. However, when someone tells me that a 3 year old could have taken a better shot, then it just leaves me empty and angry and frustrated.

And this is how this place came about. And it’s great to see it slowly developing  - slowly but surely – into a nice little place where we can be nice to each other, offer comments to allow others to grow and to support with encouragement.

Why? Because we all start somewhere, we are all heading somewhere and because a clap on the back is nicer than a punch in the face.

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What do you think about harsh comments? Do you mind if your peers get nasty about your work? We would love to hear….

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Womens Photography Challenge! Autumn Light

October 3rd, 2011 by BecksAdmin

Here at Womens Photography we do like a Challenge! So here is ours to you! The competition prize is to get your photo or blog featured on our blog! Ok, so it’s a small prize but it’s supposed to be fun.

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Well this week see’s our first photo theme and I’m so excited to get you all involved ! Our first Monthly Theme is Autumn and this week (3.10.11) the theme is Light.

Light is something that seems to fascinate photographers as it can make or break a picture and it can create some amazingly beautiful images. In Autumn the light is low and hazy and can create the most beautiful flares, halos and highlights.

So we want to see your pictures on the theme of Autumn Light. You can submit them on our facebook page or our flickr group or you can blog your challenge on your own blog and link up below :)

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Womens Photography On The Internet

September 26th, 2011 by BecksAdmin

In my experience Women Photographers are a really resourceful bunch of ladies, using everything at her disposal to improve and develop their photography, to publish their work and hopefully get some recognition and to love their hobby, their profession, their fun more.

I wanted to show some of the websites that I love to use for photography inspiration and guidance to improve what I do with the shutter. Over the next few posts I’ll share with you some of my favorite web haunts. I hope they are of some use to you, and please share your top websites too, we can review them in later posts.  I’ve just chosen a few to look at today, because I can’t cover them all!

Inspiration 

My top tip for inspiration goes to to Pinterest. Here is my Pinterest inspiration Boardif you want to have a little look, for me it’s a wonderful collection of hints, tips and beautiful pictures from all kinds of sources. I particularly love these…(all can be found on my board for source).

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I think for me pinterest is such a collection of tastes and leads you to places all over the web which can inspire, support and develop your photography. It’s a visual community which develops the more you use it, the more you follow and collate in it the more you take from it and the more you can give too.

I found these photoshop tutorials on pinterest and they are super cool how to’s, how to make business cards, cartoon strips, tilt shift effects and typographic work amongst other things.

Most of all though it offers inspiration, I see different points of view, different ideas and a mix of what people love. That can only make you better.

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Launching The Women’s Photography Photo Challenge

September 19th, 2011 by BecksAdmin

We are so excited and happy to announced that October the 1st will see the start of our Monthly Photo Challenges!

Each month we will have a theme, and within that theme 4-5 (depending on the number of weeks in the month) weekly challenges. These themes are going to be fairly open to your interpretation and your own creativity and we totally encourage going out and shooting some new shots, but archive shots are still welcome. You are welcome to subtly watermark images if you want.

Mel and I will go through the pictures submitted each week and pick a number that we think are great and blog about them. We’ll carry on blogging about other stuff too but your pictures were always going to be our focus. We’ll both be posting our answer to the challenge too.

So Octobers theme is Autumn and this weeks challenge is Light. I’ll be posting in more detail tomorrow and then at the weekend we will start to post the favourite selection of pictures.

We’d love to see you blog about your pictures too, we will post a badge with the start of the months theme too so that you can grab it for your blog. You can submit your work at our Women’s Photography Flickr Page or on our Facebook Page.  We will add a linky to the bottom of the initial challenge post and so you can link up your blog posts to ours and we can all see each others work and words. If you don’t have Flickr or Facebook then feel free to email the picture too us with the weeks theme in the subject line and letting us know where we can find you online, of course attaching your picture – womenphotographerforum@gmail.com.

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*Disclaimer* By entering the competition you give permission for your photo to be used in the blog but copywrite is still your own. 

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Professional Photography Interviews: Christine Meintjes – Wedding Photographer

September 15th, 2011 by Melanie Martin

I absolutely love when professional photographers share their knowledge and wisdom. And I love soaking up everything they got to say. Christine Meintjes does share a lot, she runs workshops and several other ventures, you will hear about below.

I hope you enjoy what you read.

 

1. I think most of our readers will know you but maybe tell us in a few words about what you do, because there is rather a lot that you do.

Hi, I’m Christine. I started my careers as a wedding and Portrait photographers. I still photograph, but also have a few other projects I’m involved with. I run a wedding blog called www.theprettyblog.com with a friend of mine, as well as run a ‘playground of photographers’ called KIKI. It’s a place where photographers can learn and share and learn more about the industry.

2. What I love about your blog is that you are not afraid to share your knowledge and give tips. Do you think there is advice to give to photographers no matter what they shoot, like some universal truths?

Yes, for sure. Always be yourself. And above all else, never compare yourself to anyone else. You are unique, an individual. You see different than everyone else. Embrace that!

3. I love your photos because they are so natural, I can tell that your clients have a great time with you and that shines through, but I also love how you capture details. What do you thinks turns a good wedding photographer in a great one?

I believe a photographer that’s in touch with what’s going on around him will be a much better one than one that’s in his/her own world. It’s difficult to say what makes a great photographer, as there are so many things one can look at. But I believe the photographer that made their clients day is the great one. At the end we don’t just give our clients photos, we give them an experience. And that’s what’s important.

4. You teach workshops and I am still gutted I couldn’t go to your workshop in Munich. How do you plan your workshops? What do you want participants in your workshop to take away from the days they spent with you.

My workshop is very personal. I share my story. How I started my business and all the things I learned along the way. The workshop is not a technical workshop, but rather one that challenges you as a photographer, business owner and as a person. We also do a fun styled shoot, which is always a highlight.

5. One of missions and dreams for Women Photographer Forum is to empower women to charge what they are worth, because I know it’s a struggle to ask for money at times. How do you feel about this topic? Any advice you may want to share?

Money is always a difficult topic to address, but I believe everyone should be happy with what they charge/get paid. In other words, whether you charge 50 euros or 5000 euros, you should feel confident with that. I also believe you should feel you’re giving your client a worthy product. At the end pricing is a combination of what you think you’re worth, but also what they think you’re worth.

6. Kiki.TV is so exciting, what are your future plans for that?

We have some exciting things up our sleeves for KIKI tv. We’re currently changing the twice a week tv show for a once a week show and then we’re also changing the show to something more professional, but this will only be at the end of the year. We’re very excited :)

 

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Thank you Christine for taking the time to answer the questions, I know how busy you are.

You can find Christine online here:

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