this post was submitted on 25 Nov 2023
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Photography
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A place to politely discuss the tools, technique and culture of photography.
This is not a good place to simply share cool photos/videos or promote your own work and projects, but rather a place to discuss photography as an art and post things that would be of interest to other photographers.
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My pet theory is that it’s a fairly technical hobby but a fairly difficult art form. You can master focus, exposure, lighting and post-processing and still end up with a very boring photo. Have these technically competent but artistically bereft photos that most viewers just shrug their shoulders at and it drives them insane. Cut to a couple years later they have a huge chip on their shoulder and take out their frustrations on beginners asking about what camera to buy.
I don't think this is at all. The bitter conversations almost never show up in discussions about actual photography, with few exceptions it's always in hardware discussions and boils down to brand loyalty/tribalism.
I have had a lot of hobbies over the years and the bulk of my time on the Internet ever since I first got on 25+ years ago has been spent in related discussion forums. The part I quoted has been a fundamental feature of every single hobbyist online space I frequented. Every one.
The only caveat I would add is that it's not always hardware but it's some fundamental aspect of the hobby that splits people into tribes where they make that aspect their entire personality. Back in the day, people used to have epic flame wars about Dolby Digital vs DTS sound systems, 3Dfx graphics cards vs Nvidia, Stanley Kubrick vs Stephen Spielberg, PlayStation vs Xbox, Pan and Scan vs Letterbox, etc... these online fights got really nasty and personal while I am not gonna pretend that I was strictly above it all, in retrospect it is endlessly bizarre to think about. Ultimately none of this stuff matters so why do people exert such an extraordinary amount of energy for this.