The hard truth

I’m no different than anyone else. We don’t always like the hard truth. During my photography courses, we were required to submit photographs pertaining to the lessons for review and critique by the instructor. I was really proud of the photographs that I submitted and thought they turned out very well. Then I got the critiques from the instructor. While the images fit the requirements and guidelines of the project they were chocked full of technical issues and did I hear about it. It felt like a gut punch. Needless to say, I was very depressed and down about the first project, after all, everything I had heard before starting the course my photography was “very good”.

We all like to get compliments and support. Both keep us going, but sometimes we need to hear what is not so good. We need to hear about our errors, omissions, and failures. Not to bring us down or to belittle us but to help us recognize them so we can work towards growing and becoming better, should we so choose (I put that part in there because sometimes we just learn to accept some of our faults and failures). It is often very challenging to point out errors, omissions, and failures without being either too soft in our words or too harsh. Done improperly it can feel like we’re being belittled or picked on but it can also feel like it’s not important.

One of the reasons I stopped offering a lot of critiques is because far too many people either don’t want to recognize that there may be some components of their photography that need to be improved upon and would rather listen to the “likes” rather than words. When I do a critique I spend a lot of time looking at the photograph I’m critiquing. I make notes along the way. I then gather my notes and begin to write using the method I was taught in a course on critiquing photography. I cover what I thought to be good and bad. I offer suggestions on how the bad could be improved. I write about what I thought the intent of the photographer may have been. Then you get the “cute” comment and that is the only one that gets noticed. I should add that I’m not saying my opinion is better than anyone else’s opinion but if critiques are specifically requested, “cute” is not a critique, and when those become seemingly become more important than an actual critique the photographer really didn’t want to hear what may be the hard truth.

All that to say, sometimes we need to hear the hard truth. I can’t speak for others but sometimes I need to hear it. It keeps me motivated to do better, to become better.