Thoughts About Feedback

Let's face it, we all crave acceptance. No matter who you are or what you do, you just want someone to tell you you've done a good job. I see it in my kids. Every drawing, every Lego creation, every fancy back yard gymnastic move, they want to know that you thought it was 'cool'.

Me, I like to hear that my photos are good. It makes me smile inside when someone says "Nice Photo". But, lately I've begun to dislike that kind of comment. And since the universe loves to throw things at me that I need I came across this fantastic post over on Digital Photography School about the very thoughts I've been having.

After reading the article I realized I'm stuck at the level I am now because I'm afraid of constructive criticism. I don't really want to know what's wrong with my images. That has to change.

I love to share on Flickr. I like the community and most of the people are great to chat with.I'm a member of over 90 groups right now. That's way too many for me to be actively involved it. I need to cull that down to 10 or so really good groups that are offering some great feedback. That's going to be tough. So far I've brought it down to 46. I'll see what I'm actually involved in from here on.

I think I need to be more involved in the photography community in general. I spend so much time worrying about what people might think that I never put it out there for people to actually see and comment on. That changes today. It just has to.

So going forward I'm going to be much more involved with the community. Starting with Flickr. I'll start posting into the groups and commenting on photos from those groups in hopes of getting some good feedback from other members in the groups.

Chris.