
Happy New Year, folks!
There should be more to life than just talking about the 'crisis'. I'd love to think and write 'hey, it's over, it's a world of possibilities!' - but I don't want to copy the forced optimism of our Mrs. Merkel. As I've written yesterday, the next year will be a rough one, who knows what we're going to see in the Euro zone, in the Middle East, and in the economic world, to name but a few.
I just checked last year's resolutions; except one (the last) I was pretty good in 2011. It was a challenging year, for me less than for many persons around me, who experienced bad health, a crashed marriage, or a broken relationship. It was an exhausting year as well, especially at work, which made me downright collapse last week and having a rather sleepy Christmas. Not being a workaholic at all, I realized that finding a better work/life balance will be one of my personal challenges for 2012 and beyond.
Now for the photography: I'm intending to take much larger photos than I did until now. 'Large' in a literal sense: next year I'm trying to do much more medium format, and, for the first time, large format. I'm now experienced enough to go that step further. All this will happen on film, I've understood how to develop B/W and colour photos, and the hybrid method (take on film, scan, process digitally) seems to be the royal road.
Another thing: image #1500 will be the last one I'm going to publish on this platform. A few days ago was my fourth anniversary of being here; four years of daily publishing a photo and being part of this great community has taken me on a long journey, and sometimes it was a hard ride, but it's slowly coming to an end here. Before delving into the reasons for this step I'd like to ask you: What is your experience here, were your expectations always fulfilled, and did you try different platforms? I'd love to hear your opinions.
My (old) coffee-table book of selected postings.
More MadScientist: eclecticimaging.tumblr.com, the guy behind this blog
@Ronnie 2¢: Happy New Year to you! I'm missing even more features (why can't we display our pictures at multiple resolutions?!), but what I'm missing most is dynamics. The overall pace here is very slow. You post something, get your comment, reply to it, and if the same user wants to reply to your answer, we're usually on day 2. For being a community site the aspect of speed in communication is neglected, in my opinion.
@Ted: :-) Okay, okay, but I will have to change something. Maybe post seven pictures at once for the whole week or something similar. Am3 is a great community, no doubt. But what I'm missing (and I've written that in my reply to Ronnie's comment) is the dynamics of other platforms. Take Google for instance, which has become a photographer's heaven (with some minor flaws): within just a few months I was able to attract more than 3000 followers. I'm co-curating one of the many photographic themes (called SacredSunday), and the speed and easiness of both the platform and the rising communities are quite surprising. This makes sites like AM3 with their slowly developing groups and its technical restrictions look rather old-fashioned. Have a look at it, you'll find me here. ...and many thanks for your kind words!
@SILV3R WOLF: Happy New Year, SILV3R WOLF! Make it a good one!
@Z: Am3 is an awesome platform without any doubt. People are friendly, communicative, and always encouraging (which is no self-evidence as I have seen on other platforms). As I have replied to Ted: some important features are simply missing, which would support the community approach and a more flexible handling of your content. When you compare the dynamics of Google and Am3 you will immediately see what I mean. Getting response from others and connecting to them is a matter of seconds; instant communities like photo themes (I'm curating one) is supported by the platform. Am3 is for publishing photos and giving comments, period. Everything else is coming from the people, but there are really good competitors in the field.
@Christine Walsh: Getting constructive critique on your work is really difficult. Most people who don't like things won't comment at all, others are just polite and don't want to offend you. I'm rather active at Google and one user tried to establish a #critiquepls hashtag, but even if people ask for critiques this way, they often get very polite replies and nothing else. BUT: polite people are nice people. I've seen comments on a German photo forum where photos were downright pulled to pieces. Not nice. Or, take these 'like' and 'dislike' buttons at 500px.com: when somebody publishes one of these very colourful HDR images, usually the 'like' counter is going up quickly and the photo is presented on the platform's portfolio pages. A few hours later people who dislike HDR are pushing their buttons and the image disappears from the portfolio page. The first group won't tell you why it likes that photo, the latter one won't tell why it dislikes it. It's really difficult, especially on Internet sites. Maybe it's best to look for a local club where you can meet people who are willing to tell you what is okay and what isn't.