As I See It - Choosing Your Best Pictures to Post
To be honest, I am in post-holiday withdrawal. It happens every year, but it takes on a new meaning in a pandemic. For fourteen days in a row, starting on December 19th, I saw my family. I my hugged family. I ate meals with my family. That was more days of togetherness than perhaps all of the rest of 2020 combined. I do want to add a note that we had gone to great lengths to ensure that our gathering would be safe for each other and others outside of our family. If you know us, you know we are fairly risk averse. I can picture that you are probably smiling and nodding your head and thinking, “I will bet that was the case.” None of this is relative to the blog today, except that the way I cope with this kind of transition is to think about ambiguous topics. I have chosen a one of the most ambiguous topics I can think of in street photography. Here it is, in its deceptively simple piece of advice. Post your best work.
I went downtown last Friday to survey the damage from the explosion. This photo has people, environment, and story. It is hard for me to ascribe emotion to it.
Let me start by saying, that if I could figure out what my best work is, I would be posting a whole lot more. Really, I am stuck at the level of, “Is any of this really post-able?” But I am getting off topic again. How do you know what your best work is?
I walked to Broadway on 3rd Avenue South. The area around the explosion was fenced off. This photo has people and environment. Only in the context of the series does it have story and emotion.
Is your best work the work your viewers like most?
It may not be. However, in the absence of any other strategy, posting work that people will like is not the worst idea. It is likely to be really clear what photos your viewers will like when you post on Instagram. They will like your post if it meets the expectations they have for you. If you are known for high contrast black and whites or geometric street photography, and you choose to post a color portrait, is not likely to get a good reception. It turns out humans are drawn to connections not just in a composition, but across compositions. Because Facebook does not have the tradition of viewers expressing likes in the same way that Instagram does, I think it is almost impossible to have a like-driven approach to posting on Facebook.
A lot of damage was done to the ATT building. It was the target. Communication trucks were set up in parking lots. This photo has people, environment, story and emotion.
Is your best work the work you most like?
It quite possibly is not. When you look at one of your pictures, you not only see the image, but possibly feel your mood when it was taken. You remember the context. You perhaps even remember what you were thinking. The whole experience creates a rich tapestry of feelings and story for you, but that may not be communicated at all by the picture for your viewer. I do think that posting the pictures that mean most to you is an authentic response. That is a good enough reason to post them.
I was not the only interested photographer. This photo has people, environment, some story and some emotion.
If you do not use likes, either your own or your viewers, to identify your best work, then how do you do it?
This is speculation on my part, but I think being intentional when you post a photo will help you choose the best one. Being intentional means that you think for a moment about the quality of your post. You can choose your way to be intentional, but this strikes me as a simple way to evaluate much of your street photography work. Is there a balance between the people, the environment, the story and the emotion?
This photo is weak in the people aspect because the subject is small, strong environment, good story and good emotion. The in-photo caption is an asset.
Probably of this group of pictures posted in the blog, I should post the picture of the woman holding her ears and the picture of the man running.
Exercise
For just this week, when you post, think about how well your candid photo is balanced between people, environment, story and feeling. If one aspect is consistently under represented, you will know what to start looking for in future work.