ELEVEN (11)

[Bobby_G]

My reference was and IS about the old Garage Glamour days compared to where we are now. I joined in 2004 and GG was an absolute pit of knowledge for me. I absolutely wore out the PM system to the JT's, JimmyD, Glenn Usdins of the world asking questions trying to absorb all I could. Today if anything my love of photography is TWICE as strong...hell I am one phone call and meeting away from leaving an industry I have been very successful for a full time commercial photography position (fingers crossed)...

In the "old days" when I had my 6 monitor PC system at work (I know overkill, but all 6 had a purpose LOL) I kept one opened to GG and was able to read all of the new posts and comments...maybe that was NOT good for me because I DID see all of the heated debates, the good images, the bad...etc. Regardless, I still scratch my head when I go to a forum and see 1 or 2 replies IN THE NUDE section over a 3 day period...and the responses aren't "earth shattering" either...I still see the same ole, great shot...WOW..nicely done...as in the past...but in todays G1 world there is even less of that...

I frequent about 3 or 4 forums on a regular basis and completely understand the "lookey loo" mentality...especially when it comes to nudes...its always been there and always will be. Maybe the changing of the guard has taken longer here than I expected or wanted it too...I dunno

A few of us frequent the same forums...so I think some may understand more of what I am referring. If I post one of my 6 to 8 image series,I'll post it on about 4 or 5 boards...the EXACT post!! here it may go 3 to 5 days with 1 (one) reply, while somewhere else it may get 2 pages of replies in a few hours...sure, theres a lot of WOW, nice shots etc...but I also get a LOT of "how did you light that"..."what is your B&W conversion" etc....SO MUCH like the questions I used to ask...and I get a lot of PM's from those (much like I used to be) who maybe don't want to ask a question in a public forum...THATS what I miss here...I miss GG, G1 whatever we call it being the "powerhouse" it used to be...maybe it's because this was the FIRST site I really "belonged" to and I have some sentimental "sublimenal" reasons LOL...

Anyhoot...I am hopeful G1 becomes a place I "look forward" to coming to again...and thats starts with looking in the mirror and being more of a contributor myself

[BenE]

Originally Posted by Al_Nowak

The forums were also a lot looser. Nudity was on the main forum and hot and heated arguments occurred with some frequency. I can remember several photographers being banned from the forums for comments they made... and probably they deserved it. Now the forums are like nice old ladies tea rooms, almost genteel for heavens sake...

ROFH (howling)

So,, ya rather see guys being banned and lots of people yanking chains than something more like a gentleman's disagreement.

[grsphoto]

I think the issue isn't forum software...if we can figure out photoshop, figuring out this site is a breeze... but the lack of "personalities"

I think this comes down to the owner of the site (RG) being a very opinionated person, and some of the "legendary" posters from the past also being very opinionated. This has created some animosity, which has kept the legendary posters from returning.

With all the other forums out there the people who run the forum are going to have their work cut out for them to increase the number of postings and traffic. At one time GG was it... now there are so many more options.

Glenn

[Al_Nowak]

Originally Posted by BenE

ROFH (howling)

So, ya rather see guys being banned and lots of people yanking chains than something more like a gentleman's disagreement.

Not necessarily, but it did indicate that the guys posting gave a damn and were willing to state their opinion no matter what the consequences. Now, it's rare to see anything other than the usual "nice shot", "wow", or similar.

Sometimes ya just really gotta say "what the hell were you thinking?"

[ARTFORMS]

Originally Posted by ROFH (howling)

So,, ya rather see guys being banned and lots of people yanking chains than something more like a gentleman's disagreement.
Al_Nowak;261930

Not necessarily, but it did indicate that the guys posting gave a damn and were willing to state their opinion no matter what the consequences. Now, it's rare to see anything other than the usual "nice shot", "wow", or similar.

Sometimes ya just really gotta say "what the hell were you thinking?"

I was here when some of those people were being banned. Some of it was due to slinging insults rather than making realistic critiques on images. Whether you are learning to get better at it or teaching someone else and giving pointers on lighting or other techniques it's probably about artistic expression or technical advice. People post images here from beginners to top pro's, we or they might rather know how the image could be improved on or what isn't working very well on the picture instead of the, "your picture sucks, I hate freckles and red hair and you don't have any business posting images of a person who looks like that" kind of attitude.
Sometimes the image might be so good that there will be some of the nice shot comments, but I might like to know how they did it to learn something, and yes, we do see some pictures get posted that make us wonder what they were thinking.

[BenE]

Originally Posted by Al_Nowak

Not necessarily, but it did indicate that the guys posting gave a damn and were willing to state their opinion no matter what the consequences. Now, it's rare to see anything other than the usual "nice shot", "wow", or similar.

Sometimes ya just really gotta say "what the hell were you thinking?"

Well.. Al, it seems that I have already stated my opinion, and caused a little brouhaha. And it was really not intentional. But I agree the "nice shot" comments get boring. Even worse when it is an image that is so far off being nice. LOL

Hey, even worse is "great shot", when it looks like a snapshot, and I have seen that, but not here. Not yet. And when I made an attempt to discuss it, that was met by either more "great shot" comments, or simply ignoring my questions.

[ARTFORMS]

Originally Posted by BenE

Well.. Al, it seems that I have already stated my opinion, and caused a little brouhaha. And it was really not intentional. But I agree the "nice shot" comments get boring. Even worse when it is an image that is so far off being nice. LOL

Hey, even worse is "great shot", when it looks like a snapshot, and I have seen that, but not here. Not yet. And when I made an attempt to discuss it, that was met by either more "great shot" comments, or simply ignoring my questions.

I agree with that. I've seen the nice or great shot comments when they were not well deserved on several photo posting websites including this one. Sometimes it seems to come from the buddy's of the person who posted the image.
Personally I thought it was better to give a critique based on the quality of the image rather than who the person is, in the photo or who the person is that shot the photo.

[cspmf]

Hi my name is Claudio I have been a free member since Sept 2005. You can see by my count I don't post although I will be changing that soon. I have been taking pictures since I was 16 years old I’ll be 52 this March). I won't bore you with any more background info. I just want to let you know I love photography. I have learned more about the type of images I like to shoot in the last three years from this site than I have from reading books or any other source. I have recommended this site to people I know that are interested in glamour photography and after checking it out they all agree it is the best site out there. The thing that keeps me coming back the most is the different calibre of shooters from newbie’s to pros ( I won't name names we all know who we are) and the newbie’s are treated with respect and are encouraged to get better with constructive non condescending criticism. So please keep on posting on G1 or what ever it is called in the future. Thank You all for making me a better shooter. (The newbie’s for having the guts to post their images, the Pros for their tips and comments so we can all learn how to take better images, and all for posting awesome stuff I can continue to learn from)......