And yet again...great talent trumps any amount of equipment

Aglet said:
It always amazes me what kind of images are popular with the masses, even if it's just a fad.
I really gotta get more twisted and come up with some weird cr*p myself. Shooting technically precise versions of reality may appeal to me and a few others but won't get us on the cover of Rolling Stone.
You and me both. I entered a local art "contest" to display my work around town and after my work was passed over, they offered to send me samples of the types of photos judges had liked in the past. With one exception, all of them were over-processed, cliched crap. Tie dye filters, fake bokeh, sepia tone with fake burned corners, etc.

To me, photography like that is like a lousy steak being slathered with sauces and toppings, insane treble and bass in a cheap stereo system, or lipstick on a pig - whatever you want to call it. It's covering up sub-par work that's out of focus, poorly composed, etc.

Luckily, less trendy people, i.e., most commercial clients, appreciate quality over flash and are very appreciative of my work.

I guess I'll never be an "artist", but then again, I've never considered myself one :)
 
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Geez...what a bunch of pretentious 'photographers' we have here. It's more than a little daft to dismiss his work as that of an 'Instagram Hipster'...please, have some respect.

It seems that this kid has what so many of you are so quick to dismiss him don't have....an imagination. With a little training....or a lot of trial and error...anybody can make a technically 'good' photo. On the other hand....not everyone has an eye or the brain for something creative.

To the person who said this kid would be better off 'with a business plan' shooting weddings...sorry, but for many of us that is the personification of photographic Satan. Personally I get ZERO enjoyment from shooting weddings but hey, if you or others make a buck at it then good for you.

There are numerous ways this kid could leverage his imagination and vision into a paying photography career...once again it is others like you who lack the foresight or imagination to see it:) I could easily see this kid making a go in the commercial realm while the rest of us sluff our 'technically perfect' yet boring, cliche photos at the doors of stock agencies....or worse yet, sell our souls to the latest Bridezilla who will be burning your vanilla bean hold the foam portraits at her divorce seven years later.

Cheers:)
 
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Feb 22, 2012
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I entered some of my photos in a local fair some years ago. The judges didn't pick any as winners. Members of the public did ("Peoples' Choice"). That meant even more to me. My artistic talent/ability is precisely squat, but I knew where I had to be to get that shot and when I had to be there. A setting summer sun silhouetting a local bridge from a specific vantage point. Similar stuff's been shot a zillion times.....but it remains one of my favorites and apparently others liked it also. The same venue had dozens of photos from every wedding photog in the area, most of whom are no longer in business, all interchangeable and so similar. I hope they still enjoy photography, all were technically competent and good at their craft but just didn't stand out in what is a competitive business. I've seen many examples of wedding photography on CR that were inspiring and helped me to appreciate what a talented person can do.

I guess my point is, agreeing with AcutancePhotography above, art is truly in the eye of the beholder. Kyle Thompson's work doesn't do much for me personally but I don't think that makes him any less of an artist, I respect his efforts.
 
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brad-man

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bosshog7_2000 said:
Geez...what a bunch of pretentious 'photographers' we have here. It's more than a little daft to dismiss his work as that of an 'Instagram Hipster'...please, have some respect.

It seems that this kid has what so many of you are so quick to dismiss him don't have....an imagination. With a little training....or a lot of trial and error...anybody can make a technically 'good' photo. On the other hand....not everyone has an eye or the brain for something creative.

To the person who said this kid would be better off 'with a business plan' shooting weddings...sorry, but for many of us that is the personification of photographic Satan. Personally I get ZERO enjoyment from shooting weddings but hey, if you or others make a buck at it then good for you.

There are numerous ways this kid could leverage his imagination and vision into a paying photography career...once again it is others like you who lack the foresight or imagination to see it:) I could easily see this kid making a go in the commercial realm while the rest of us sluff our 'technically perfect' yet boring, cliche photos at the doors of stock agencies....or worse yet, sell our souls to the latest Bridezilla who will be burning your vanilla bean hold the foam portraits at her divorce seven years later.

Cheers:)

Well said, and welcome to CR! Some very disappointing responses happening here. Photography should not be pigeonholed.
 
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eml58

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brad-man said:
Well said, and welcome to CR! Some very disappointing responses happening here. Photography should not be pigeonholed.

I agree, welcome to CR, and it's a pity "bosshog" felt it necessary to be as critical in his own post (of critical Posts) as others have been about the original subject, I guess that's Photography to some, very emotive.

Wether we "Like" or "dislike" the work in question, we really should respect the Lads ability, he is doing some very interesting work, sort of Salvador Dali esqe, which has an audience, maybe not on CR, but Salvador Dali sold Paintings, this Lad will almost certainly find a Market as he progresses in experience & ability, I wish him all the very best.
 
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Drizzt321 said:
And so, yet again, I am humbled and recognize that I don't have nearly the artistic talent that many have. And that my Gear Acquisition Syndrome should be toned back a bit. Just...wow.

http://www.viralnova.com/kyle-thompson-photography/
http://www.kylethompsonphotography.com/
https://www.facebook.com/KyleThompsonPhotography

Well it depends upon what you shoot. If you are trying for some mind-blowing sports action shots shooting with some hipstamatic thingy might not work out as well.

Depends what you like and want to do, he likes the faded instagram look and heavy photo manip and semi-contrived scene type and nothing else. I'm not really into that so much myself, seems a bit over the top and contrived to me, but plenty love that sort of thing (especially photo contests, where anything not all hyper set up like that often gets a quick boot, which I do think is a shame, but whatever), but if you are then yeah another $10,000 L or two more 1DX probably won't do much for you. Experimenting and getting a lot of practice and skill with photoshop might.

And yeah you can certainly take amazing shots, tons of them, with practically whatever. It just depends if you care about taking other types of shots where some more details in teh foliage at the edges or more apparent texture in the mosses and barks or more ability to nail high-speed random action at low DOF or some or not (even then yeah you can use something like a 20D and less than a super-tele and get some pretty amazing action shots, absolutely without question, but you will also be regularly annoyed at the shots you missed and didn't have to miss, yeah some are on you, but some are on a camera too; give a top pro a 20D and I guarantee he blows more shots than with his own equipment and if make it a night game and give him f/5.6 lens you also get a lot more grain and junk but he probably has a much better take with a 20D and a 70-200 f/4 than a beginner, especially one without all that much innate talent, using a 1DX and 300 2.8; for something like basket ball for the 20D really struggled and add in say a 70-300 f/4-f/5.6 and no strobe access and give a decent relative newcomer a 1DX and a 70-200 2.8 and strobes and I bet the latter might end up with a better take though).
 
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dufflover

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Of all the examples to do the whole "gear vs. talent" thing I didn't think it would be this out-of-touch example lol. I would've thought those Rebel + kit-zoom images would be the ones to be showing off ...

I can appreciate a good image and all that, including the creativity (though this specifically is not my cup of tea), but it is so detached from the gear vs talent debate it's not funny, (ESPECIALLY) when the whole "photograph vs digital art" argument comes into it. It's no better or worse than a realistic photo; it's just not comparable.
 
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Mar 21, 2013
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I love the creativity this guy has... photo manipulation or not.
Reality is... more than half the people in this forum, including myself can't think like this...

I don't frequent instagram, flickr, etc.
But, I bet the people complaining that this stuff is 1 in a million or even a billion, can't provide more than 10 other people that can do stuff like this...

A lot of people here, have amazing equipment and yet how many of them are proud enough to exhibit their pictures like this guy does?
 
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Mar 25, 2011
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mackguyver said:
You and me both. I entered a local art "contest" to display my work around town and after my work was passed over, they offered to send me samples of the types of photos judges had liked in the past. With one exception, all of them were over-processed, cliched crap. Tie dye filters, fake bokeh, sepia tone with fake burned corners, etc.
I did not enter, just looked at winners. Indeed, the judges at our local Fair pick some pretty common and rather poor quality images. I decided to avoid entering after seeing some wonderful work passed over.
 
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Ozarker

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nda

Nov 8, 2011
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bosshog7_2000 said:
Geez...what a bunch of pretentious 'photographers' we have here. It's more than a little daft to dismiss his work as that of an 'Instagram Hipster'...please, have some respect.

It seems that this kid has what so many of you are so quick to dismiss him don't have....an imagination. With a little training....or a lot of trial and error...anybody can make a technically 'good' photo. On the other hand....not everyone has an eye or the brain for something creative.

To the person who said this kid would be better off 'with a business plan' shooting weddings...sorry, but for many of us that is the personification of photographic Satan. Personally I get ZERO enjoyment from shooting weddings but hey, if you or others make a buck at it then good for you.

There are numerous ways this kid could leverage his imagination and vision into a paying photography career...once again it is others like you who lack the foresight or imagination to see it:) I could easily see this kid making a go in the commercial realm while the rest of us sluff our 'technically perfect' yet boring, cliche photos at the doors of stock agencies....or worse yet, sell our souls to the latest Bridezilla who will be burning your vanilla bean hold the foam portraits at her divorce seven years later.

Cheers:)

+1
 
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I think his work is cool and creative. I also know many have no attraction to this sort of artistic expression - hence "in the eye of the beholder."

On another note, there's much talk here about "photoshop" and to me, all his work looks like a single shot photo with props and no photoshop at all! That is part of the interesting nature of the work.
 
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triggermike said:
I think his work is cool and creative. I also know many have no attraction to this sort of artistic expression - hence "in the eye of the beholder."

On another note, there's much talk here about "photoshop" and to me, all his work looks like a single shot photo with props and no photoshop at all! That is part of the interesting nature of the work.

He is just a male Brooke Shaden, and it is all very heavily photoshopped.

Galleries like it so they must be selling it...........
 
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