Mini-Rant: Screw the Critics

It's a new year, and I have been thinking a lot about this. There was even a long, rambling rant all written up, but I just spiked it. I'll save you the reading time by condensing it down to this:

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Don't try to please everyone. The more worried you are about pleasing everyone else, the less likely you are to ever please yourself. Nor are you likely produce anything truly interesting or develop any kind of a personal style worth having.

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That applies to your lighting. But it is also true for your composition, your choice of subject matter, your cooking, your performance review, your haircut -- whatever.

If you are not getting the occasional blowback, you are almost certainly playing it too safe and worrying too much about what others might think of your work.

The important thing is, what do you think of it?

And just understand that some people feel it is their sacred, God-given duty to tell you what you did wrong in your photo. Unsolicited of course. Because, the internet.

Just block 'em. Problem solved. If they'd rather spend their time injecting unsolicited critiques into the photo streams of perfect strangers than actually being out making photos, let them do it somewhere else. Life's too short.

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