1 post tagged “fg”

Dragon Fly (The 500th photo of the Nikon FG group)

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It seems as if a lot of people concern themselves with the meaning of interestingness. What does it mean? How does one achieve interestingness? Who determines this nebulous concept? Where does interestingness manifest itself in the art of photography? Why is interestingness important? These are only a few of the questions people are attempting to answer and the concerns affect the professional photographer as well as any novice.

I am a novice, therefore I have the necessary qualification to write about a concept that impacts on the professional as well as the novice. That is right isn't it? (Okay, granted my ability to write convincingly is sadly lacking, I therefore sincerely apologize for any inconvenience.) I make apologies for my improper grammar, but would ask you to consider that this too is part of the problem. You may have read opinions from professional photographers, or the staff at Flickr, or indeed, other blogs penned by wordsmiths whose abilities far exceed my own. Each of us struggle with the concept of interestingness, some communicate well, some not so well. Yet we all struggle, each in ways and manners unique to the personal self. Experience suggests to me that the one who struggles longest, hardest and most earnestly to understand a concept will be the one most qualified to empower interestingness, the concept, beyond the mere mundane into the realm of the sublime.

Like I said earlier, I am a novice. When I joined Flickr I went looking for a group. I found a group called the same as my camera, the Nikon FG group. As I recall, Flickr made it really easy, as all I had to do was click a button or two, and suddenly I wasn't alone any more, I was part of a group! I thought that was pretty cool, so I also joined another group called the Nikon Film Group. I waited and waited. No one noticed me. It is so depressing to join a group of people and realize that no one even cares. If you look at the date posting in the discussion areas you get a pretty good feel for the dynamics of a group!

I started thinking about interestingness. Actually, it was more along the lines of "Why doesn't anyone see me?" So, obviously I was concerned about "What is wrong about my pictures?" It is hard not to take the lack of recognition as a personal afront. "What is wrong about me that others should ignore me?" Maybe the answer is within the concept of interestingness. Maybe my pictures weren't interesting. Maybe people simply hate me because I'm homeless. Maybe they are much too involved in their own pursuits to concern themselves with the responsibilites of developing a group or community. Do you think this might be a reflection of the way people tend to see themselves in their own real world community?

Anyway, when I joined the Nikon FG group there were 497 photos in the pool. It seemed resonable to me that the group I wished to join might consider, with some level of respect, a person who would contribute to the group effort. I felt the group might wish to be eleavated to a big round number, Five Hundred, perhaps a milestone. I saw the potential, I took the shot and I claimed the point of interestingness.Certainly, in and of itself, five hundred represents a point of interestingness. I contributed three of my pictures to achieve a mathmatically proven point of interestingness. This is interestingness quantified. It is the essence of that which so many are pursuing, it is interestingness.

Perhaps my picture fails to suggest interestingness to others. Yet I submit my best picture in the hope others might conclude that even a novice can present a photograph of interestness. You can do it too, so don't be discouraged if others can't see it, nor recognize it, because they are searching for it. When you find interestingness show the world so that they can see and maybe, maybe understand interestingness.