[RGlasel]

There's always some that will insult you just for sport.

Must be one of those "e-sports" I keep reading about. The thing about the Internet is that even though no one really knows who you are, there is no place to hide. If you take time to look around you in cyberspace, you can find every sort of bent, twisted or broken kind of person you can think of and pleasant experiences can become unpleasant at the flip of a switch. It's the nature of the beast, there is no way to fix it that I can think of.

[RobA_Oz]

To quote Grouch Marx -

'I wouldn't want to be a member of any club that would have persons like me as members.'

I was thinking of the same quote, as I was reading through this thread.

Seriously, I watched the movie Mrs Lowry & Son last night. For those unfamiliar with him, LS Lowry was a British artist who painted in the attic where he lived with his aged, disappointed and hyper-critical mother, but who persisted with his art until he eventually found an appreciative audience – his paintings now command large sums.

Relevant to this thread was his mild reaction to an art critic’s review (I paraphrase): “What does he know? He doesn’t know me, and I don’t know him”.

We need to be careful of making an exclusive club of people who have been rejected by an exclusive club. There’s a bit too much of that going on in the world, right now. Overdo things, and you run the risk of becoming the very thing you reject.

[mhsp1948]

Here is a photo I took this afternoon on a very cloudy and cold day. I am thinking about trying one more time, what do you all think about this one. Taken with my K1 Mark ii and my HD Pentax-D FA* 50mm F1.4 SDM AW

[mhsp1948]

This comment is completely unrelated to your photograph. Why do you want to be a member of this club?

Because it is another hill to climb to see if I can and to see what is on the other side is the best answer I have Bassat.

[Sir Nameless]

I can’t say whether you should submit that or not, but I would say that I think it is very nicely done. Well composed and a nice serene atmosphere. It is not the kind of photo that gets a lot of attention—over saturated and super-dramatic lighting is all the rage right now.

[mhsp1948]

I can’t say whether you should submit that or not, but I would say that I think it is very nicely done. Well composed and a nice serene atmosphere. It is not the kind of photo that gets a lot of attention—over saturated and super-dramatic lighting is all the rage right now.

Thank you for the impute Sir Nameless

[mhsp1948]

Here is one more I took this afternoon just before it began to rain.

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[thazooo]

I won't critique you. I will say do some reading about composition. A nice site is Cambridge in Colour. Search for others.

Good Luck.

[mhsp1948]

I won't critique you. I will say do some reading about composition. A nice site is Cambridge in Colour. Search for others.

Good Luck.

Thank you thazooo

[Lhorn]

So i had a look at the photos in this exclusive gallery and i must say there are few i really like.
They should rename the gallery to "the over the top photoshopped gallery"
Its more artwork than actual photos.
Not my cup of tea I'm afraid.
To my regret the monthly photo competition is moving in the same direction.
Maby we should start a "straigt out of the camera gallery" (if it is not already there ).
Regards.

I tend to agree with much of this comment. First of all, the photos in the Exclusive Gallery are stunningly beautiful. They do tend to look very processed; some look perfect to the point of being unnatural. It'd be very interesting to see how many of these looked straight out of the camera. Maybe there should be a "no processing gallery" thread.

Gallery is definitely some "next level" stuff - some astoundingly talented folks on here, especially considering the niche market of Pentax.

[Dartmoor Dave]

Before I start this post I want to be clear that there's no intention of being critical of anyone in or out of the Exclusive Gallery, or of the gallery itself.

The photos posted by the OP in this thread fall into the general category of "landscape", so I'm going to stick to talking about landscape photography.

If you look through the landscape photographs in the Exclusive Gallery, you'll quickly spot some common characteristics. They are almost always shot at sunrise or sunset, or even at night. The ones that are shot during daytime are usually processed in B&W, or if they are not in B&W then they always include mist or dramatic cloud. Water is a common feature, always blurred with a slow shutter speed, and the processing style of all photos is designed to make it clear that they have an "artistic" rather than "record shot" intent. To be clear again, this is not a criticism but just an observation of some common characteristics.

So, to those who want to make it their goal to get into the Exclusive Gallery, the way forward should be obvious. Work towards taking photos that contain those elements above, and that display the same sort of aesthetic sensibility, and you might get in. Otherwise, you won't. And if you choose not to subscribe to the Gallery's particular aesthetic it doesn't mean that your work doesn't have quality, it just means that it lacks the particular signifiers that are expected in the sorts of photos that appear in the Gallery.

Before you submit a photo, ask yourself with blunt honesty whether it includes the signifiers that the judges are obviously looking for. I know mine don't, which is why I've never submitted one.

[swanlefitte]

Watching some top photographers critique photos is really beneficial. There are plenty on youtube.
This one has a top architecture and top landscape photographer pointing out what their observations are.

Youtu.be

Youtu.be

[Dartmoor Dave]

Watching some top photographers critique photos is really beneficial. There are plenty on youtube. This one has a top architecture and top landscape photographer pointing out what their observations are. Youtu.be

I skipped the intro and started it a couple of minutes in. Then at about the 8 minute mark they were loving a shot that had been processed so that car light trails were visible in the daytime, and at that point I switched off. It's just not the sort of photography that I'm personally into, and it definitely isn't an objective absolute standard of what photography should be.

[ffking]

The "Exclusive Gallery" is all about a particular aesthetic, and if you don't happen to share that aesthetic then you can happily ignore it (as I and many others do). If you do happen to feel that the sorts of photos that get made "Exclusive" represent an aesthetic that you'd like to emulate, then of course you're free to work towards that goal.

But it most definitely does NOT represent an absolute objective standard that all photography should be measured against.

Totally agree - I as actually going to say something similar.

Also there's a lot of weird stuff about aesthetics - apart from beauty being in the eye of the beholder and all that - but 'perfection' is always in danger of being a bi 'meh!' - impressive but uninspiring. Again, we're all different and all have different views and aesthetics (thank goodness), but the pictures that interest me are the ones where you can see the ideas of the photographer at work, not their technical (particularly post production) skill. Art is communication, and I'd much rather have something interesting about the subject communicated than the ability of the photographer to polish an image or conform to an aesthetic.

[mhsp1948]

Totally agree - I as actually going to say something similar.

Also there's a lot of weird stuff about aesthetics - apart from beauty being in the eye of the beholder and all that - but 'perfection' is always in danger of being a bi 'meh!' - impressive but uninspiring. Again, we're all different and all have different views and aesthetics (thank goodness), but the pictures that interest me are the ones where you can see the ideas of the photographer at work, not their technical (particularly post production) skill. Art is communication, and I'd much rather have something interesting about the subject communicated than the ability of the photographer to polish an image or conform to an aesthetic.

After much reading and thought I think you have really nailed it ffking and I totally agree. I have decided to not post because it is causing me to take my photography to a place I don't want to go. I like telling a story, with my photographs not styling it or processing it to the point that it loses the mood and point I was trying to get across. Thank you all for posting and thank you ffking.