Wow... Who remembers what its like to set up a negative in a large format camera. Using a focusing screen while focusing and getting the lighting/framing/composition/animals/garbage/mountains/rivers/etc. etc. etc. then holding your breath waiting for that magical "this is it" moment when you pressed on the shutter assuming you had the right speed film, right focus angle, right depth of field, so on and so forth... for one shot!
Now, you see "photographers" taking 3000 frames for a wedding venue, and photo-shopping to get a decent album... and you see that not one of the pics has the catch light in the right place on the model's eye,
I have to admit, in general it has been great for the hobby getting a lot of interest without having to learn the basics, but it has also creating millions of mediocre at best photographs, which will never have a shot at creating that iconic National Geographic cover picture of View attachment 332883
It's a shame. I feel we have a lot more to give and are surrendering to being lazy. This is my 2 bits as a newbie, and I promise to dust off my Canon F-1 or god forbid my Mamiya ProS 67 and take some pics (while using a light meter and applying the rule of 1/3's). Happy new Year all!
While I have the respect for those that go the "technical" and "artistic" method of photography, I've NEVER claimed to do the same. I'm one of those that wants to get the shot so that I can view it later and know that I didn't miss out on something that piqued my interest. So, yeah, I'm one of those just taking snapshots, but I enjoy the heck out of doing what I do.
Years ago (prior to June of 2017 when I set up my Smugmug account), I had some pictures on Photobucket and used that source to put pictures into forums. Then PB sent me a notice one time that if I wanted to continue to use them for that purpose, I needed to pay them $400 per year to do so. So, I went to Smugmug that only charged $300 per year for their top professional's accounts. (I didn't go with the top account, but one just below it.)
Something I discovered at Smugmug is that they kept track of image views, popular galleries, and even what sources "referred" others to view my pictures. Mostly, the viewers are from here and Glock Talk, but some are from some RV forums.
Thus, I have to give thanks to the folks here at OSA that have helped astound me in how many "image views" that there have been since 2017. Just this month, there have now been more than 2 million views.
Thanks to all.