General photography

Hi everybody. Another refugee from DPR.

I am one of those few people who stuck with DPR just for the weekly photo thread on the M43 forum, which was an institution. I know Wormsmeat is looking for a new home for the weekly thread and was thinking of moving it to another place on DPR ( I guess the Open Forum), as it was suffering a bit of decline due to less traffic on the M43 forum and what seems a general decline of interest in photography.

I will pass a link to him, as this looks like it is going to be a good alternative to DPR.

I just wonder if Open Talk might be better if it was not in a sub category, but a standalone.

I'll give it a try!

We are having the same discussion about the weekly Critique thread, which has been housed on DPR under the old Oly section but which has long been used by members with all camera brands and is housed on Oly SLR simply by tradition. There are other weekly threads scattered about as well.

In principle, I’d like to see all the weekly (or, not to be too ambitious, monthly!) threads in one place open to all brands.

Not against this and I mentioned a Pollunit in another thread as a way of making challenges within our new home

However one of the charms of DPR was that some of us found a home from home with a small group of like minded idiots. I tried some fora and found I didn't fit in with their style. Not their fault but I think there are several of us who have already found our way here who would like to continue our cosy little clique...The Weekly Image Thread run by Andrew is a very nice place for me to be and I would hope it will continue here with some more members maybe ?

I use four different brands of camera and I don’t think that it matters in the least - a striking photo is a striking photo regardless, but I’ve encountered another user who strongly believes that the former members of his forum only want to see images from their own brand of camera. My vote would be for an all brands approach, but without any suggestion of challenge or competition. I think that anything which implies that only excellence is required may put off newcomers and those who (like me) are excessively self critical. There’s a place for specific challenges and best photo of the month, but equally, I think there should be a place for mediocre but interesting photos. I doubt it can be done, but even nicer would be a box to tick to indicate that critique is welcome.

I think there’s a place for both overall ‘Pic of the Week/Month’ threads, and forum-specific ‘Pic of the X’ threads.

First, a general thread could become overwhelming if/when traffic on this site grows, and it could be useful to have a smaller sub-thread that’s easier to handle.

Second, different forums can have different priorities. On Adapted Lens Talk, for example, a lot of the participants there adapt lenses looking for vintage rendering; creative/interesting bokeh over absolute sharpness, creative use of flare, and the like. The Landscape forum has a long-running Train/Plane thread.

I also agree that it’s very important to have a place open for people who are learning and/or are afraid to post in a highly competitive environment, and where C&C is important. That’s one thing I very much did not like about the DPR Challenges- there wasn’t any good way to offer or get feedback, that I could see.

For the weekly thread, I am going to see if Wormsmeat or maybe Andrew from the Olympus weekly thread are interested first. I do not want to step on anyone's toes.

I have some other ideas for sharing pictures together. I loved the "Post your 5 best pictures of the month" thread on Mu43. I would be happy to deal with that.

For a weekly thread you need two or three people to help out when the ring master goes on holiday.

[quote="@WolfsHead"]

Yes because people change brands and do not want to lose internet friends, but maybe get embarrassed posting pictures taken on a different brand.

Definitely we need a "general" section that host cross-brand photo-centric activities such as weekly displays (weekly cat is an example, monochrome was once a successful weekly activity), other things I'm not aware of or that haven't been invented yet.

I still think we need a freestanding cross-brand critique section like every other photo forum in the world, but that's another topic.