Well

it's time to get serious about this hobby. I'm good at a great many creative things. May I say talented? But I excel at none of those things.

If you're here on this blog looking at these images, and your first response is to say oooo, nice photo - please remember that a comment like this is usually not helpful to most of us - for those of us who have invested in our camera's it's helpful and most wanted to read a thoughtful explanation on why your oooo is important. We need frank - we need blunt to balance out the ego trips one tiny success can send us on. Most of all we need constructive criticism, thoughtful support, and explanation of opinion. The oooo without the why doesn't help us grow past our laurels - [and possibly those that exist in our own imaginations.] More often than not - fluffy encouragement isn't what we need from each other as artists. Artists tend to be lazy, depressed, self-centered and hard on themselves - comments appreciated with these things in mind - sometimes what might seem harsh is really the kindest comment you can make, particularly said with the interests of the artist in mind. Most fellow artists realize this - and being a photoblog connoisseur, it's sometimes painful to see so much praise on the blogs I visit. I don't mean to seem harsh nor exclude commentary but we're all really here doing this to be better than we were when we started out. So why not help each other out?