Help me make my final selection!

CapSmashy · Post by **CapSmashy** » Sun Oct 18, 2009 5:01 pm

I have been asked to submit for a local arts group to be in one or more of their upcoming shows and possibly an ongoing contributor.

My contact with the group has asked for a submission of 15 pictures of local fire performers I have been shooting for about 2 years. I spent an agonizing 2 days parsing this volume of photos down to 29 ( I cheated and made 9 of them into 3, 3 pic collections) and now I am asking the communities online I frequent to help me with the final cut.

If you have a few minutes to spare, follow the link below and select up to 15 pictures from the set that really catch your attention for whatever reason and post up the corresponding photo numbers in a reply.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cptsmashy/ ... 488699971/

Thanks!

theCryptofishist · Post by **theCryptofishist** » Sun Oct 18, 2009 5:22 pm

1, 6, 11, 13, 20, 24, 25 and series 2

Do you know what that green necklace is in 26? I swear it could be one of my glass pieces.

erbal · Post by **erbal** » Sun Oct 18, 2009 5:51 pm

3,8,9,11,16, 19,20,24,25,series 02, 22,10,12,18,21

littleflower · Post by **littleflower** » Sun Oct 18, 2009 5:53 pm

2, 3, 4 ,6, 7, 12, 14, 16, 20, 25 ... and all 3 series ... nice work!

goathead · Post by **goathead** » Sun Oct 18, 2009 6:12 pm

Great pics Cap

Dam tough to choose though.

CapSmashy · Post by **CapSmashy** » Sun Oct 18, 2009 6:13 pm

theCryptofishist wrote:Do you know what that green necklace is in 26? I swear it could be one of my glass pieces.

I can tell its a pendant of some kind in the big version, but otherwise, no clue. She's a local Dallas fire spinner that has never been out to any burn events.

theCryptofishist · Post by **theCryptofishist** » Sun Oct 18, 2009 6:16 pm

The first year I was up, I met a Ranger called Stargazer, or something like that. He had one of my pieces. He had found it while sailboarding (or whatever it's called) on the playa sometime when the event wasn't even going on. Now that's a chain, someone was given or bought one of my pieces, then took it to the playa and then it got lost and he found it and then met me.

wierd

So, it wouldn't be impossible for her to have gotten it, but it would still be something else.

gaminwench · Post by **gaminwench** » Sun Oct 18, 2009 6:19 pm

1, 3, 4, 6, 9, 10, 11, 15, 16, 17, 20, 24, 25, 26, series1...beautiful work, hard to choose!!

Post by **Elderberry** » Sun Oct 18, 2009 6:28 pm

Nice. I couldn't begin to rank them all. I'll just say my absolute favorite is 6, followed 4 and 11.

JK

RingO'Fire · Post by **RingO'Fire** » Sun Oct 18, 2009 6:55 pm

Great pics Cap'n! Here are my votes for the top 15:
2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 15, 16, 19, 20, 24, 25, 28, 29

Out of the top 15, my top absolute faves were:
8, 11, 20, 24, 28, & 29

Deb Prothero · Post by **Deb Prothero** » Sun Oct 18, 2009 8:22 pm

Great photos, Cap'n

Best 15:

2, 6, 8, 9, 11, 15, 16, 19, 21, 22, 24, 25 and series 1, 2, 3

All of them were great though.

CapSmashy · Post by **CapSmashy** » Sun Oct 18, 2009 8:42 pm

Thanks for the compliments.

I am slowly learning not to be so hypercritical of my work.

Deb Prothero · Post by **Deb Prothero** » Sun Oct 18, 2009 8:46 pm

Good luck with the art show, Cap'n.

CapSmashy · Post by **CapSmashy** » Sun Oct 18, 2009 9:01 pm

Deb Prothero wrote:Good luck with the art show, Cap'n.

Thank you! I've had a few people around here trying to push me that direction and it looks like they will finally get their wish.

theCryptofishist · Post by **theCryptofishist** » Mon Oct 19, 2009 9:48 am

CapSmashy wrote: I am slowly learning not to be so hypercritical of my work.

Heck if you're going professional, you might need to be critial of your work.

In a very different way than insecurity, though.

littleflower · Post by **littleflower** » Mon Oct 19, 2009 10:03 am

theCryptofishist wrote:
CapSmashy wrote: I am slowly learning not to be so hypercritical of my work.
Heck if you're going professional, you might need to be critial of your work.

In a very different way than insecurity, though.

i struggle with this too, cap'n ...

it's funny, though. most of my artist friends are terribly critical of their own work, and jealous of other's people's work... i think we look at our own stuff so much that i think we end up seeing only the flaws, then see what others do and wish we could do THAT ... lol ...

theCryptofishist · Post by **theCryptofishist** » Mon Oct 19, 2009 10:58 am

littleflower wrote:
theCryptofishist wrote:
CapSmashy wrote: I am slowly learning not to be so hypercritical of my work.
Heck if you're going professional, you might need to be critial of your work.

In a very different way than insecurity, though.
i struggle with this too, cap'n ...

it's funny, though. most of my artist friends are terribly critical of their own work, and jealous of other's people's work... i think we look at our own stuff so much that i think we end up seeing only the flaws, then see what others do and wish we could do THAT ... lol ...

I think we look at our own work and still see the vision that drove it--and we never quite attain that, do we.
I was suggesting, however, that Smashy work on aspects of the printing, or whatever that are within his control and that detract from the quality that a gallery would want to put on their walls or a collector would want to buy. Those are not always the the same flaws that we see as creators.

Mister Satan · Post by **Mister Satan** » Mon Oct 19, 2009 7:43 pm

Hey Smashy,

When did you pick up the Nikon 85mm f1.4?
That's my favourite lens in the world. I just sold
my manual focus one to friend from Thailand.
I'll pick up an auto version by the time Flipside rolls around.

CapSmashy · Post by **CapSmashy** » Tue Oct 20, 2009 3:46 am

Alrighty. Thanks to everyone for helping me out here. The votes are in and the top 15 (ish) are up at the link. Most of the final selections were pretty cut and dried, but I did have to make a couple of tie breaker choices.

CapSmashy · Post by **CapSmashy** » Tue Oct 20, 2009 3:48 am

Mister Satan wrote:Hey Smashy,

When did you pick up the Nikon 85mm f1.4?
That's my favourite lens in the world. I just sold
my manual focus one to friend from Thailand.
I'll pick up an auto version by the time Flipside rolls around.

I picked it up before we went to the desert.

And then I barely used it while we were out there.

It makes me want a D700 for a full frame sensor now, but I think Dr Sin would shoot me in the face if I laid out that kind of coin right now.

CapSmashy · Post by **CapSmashy** » Tue Oct 20, 2009 3:55 am

theCryptofishist wrote:Heck if you're going professional, you might need to be critial of your work.

In a very different way than insecurity, though.

I've gotten better about it. When I was making my cull of these shots, I wound up leaving several of my personal favorites out of the final pool as I realized they did not quite match up to what the organizer I talked to was wanting to see.

I guess it is not so much being overly personally critical of my own work, its setting aside my own personal bias in what I like compared to what is more appealing to those viewing my work. Even out of this last batch that I took votes on there were a couple that I was really surprised didn't make the cut and one or two surprises for what did.

Mister Satan · Post by **Mister Satan** » Tue Oct 20, 2009 4:13 pm

I have the 2nd class 85mm f1.7 AF. So I am in no hurry to pick up a new 85mm 1.4 until I upgrade to a full frame machine. For now I'll just use my 50mm 1.4. That's equal to a 75mm on my old wood burning Nikon D-70S (lol).

Back in the Bronze Age when SLRs used that stuff called film I could pretty much get by with just two lenses. A 35mm and an 85mm. I want to get two bodies with full frame sensors so that I don't have to deal with dust or compromise image quality by using zoom lenses while in the field.
That's the plan anyway. Hopefully it will go better than my bid to reclaim the French throne.

Mister Satan · Post by **Mister Satan** » Fri Oct 30, 2009 11:17 pm

One of the reasons that I like to post work on deviant ART is all the instant feedback that I get from other members. Sometimes it's hard to be objective about your own work. Especially when it comes to tiebreakers. If I am choosing between Img.01 and Img.02 I will usually go with the one that had the most positive responses.