Horn tooting, in awe and wonder

[pecunium]

I take pictures. I happen to think some of them are pretty good. But thinking one's own work is decent isn't hard to do. Harder is to figure out what other people will like.

I think this



is a pretty good picture. Based on other people's reactions, I'm wrong; it's a damned good picture.

On the other hand, some of the things I think are outstanding, e.g.



don't seem to resonate with people.

So, yesterday I got a comment on this picture, telling me the detail was really good.



I got it from, of all places, the National Museum of Wales

It took a little time for me to realise this was the actual flickr account for the Museum of Wales (why shouldn't they have one, the US Library of Congress has one). I don't know who manages the account. I don't know what criteria that person (or people) use to decide what to look at, much less what to praise.

I do know the various photos they have (at the museum's flickr account, and at the actual museum pages) include some nice macro, to include some wing scale details.

So I'm feeling tolerably pleased with myself.

Comments

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

I'm not a pro, but I love the grapes. They just feel *right* to me.

And praise from the experts is praise indeed.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

I think what works with the grapes (and it's not that I'm displeased with it, it's pretty, and I worked a lot longer at getting it than I did for the scales, or the booby and iguana) is that it's composed. There is nothing jarring in it, and one can apprehend the totality of the image in a single glance.

It doesn't take a whole lot of work to grasp. The details, those are there for the finding, but you don't need them to appreciate it.

They have a story, that of early summer, and the fruits of spring slowing ripening; in the cool under the leaves. It's an easier story to "get", so, on balance, it ought to be (assuming it's well done) the one people react to more.

That's where I think the trained eye suffers, because we start to look for the more complex details, and lose track of the simple virtues of easy apprehension.