What if...?


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nickmak

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Apr 16, 2004
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Hi,

I'm not trying to be controversial here but I was wondering on the following thing:

'If say a National Geographic photographer were to post a picture here but you do not know that he/she actually is a NG photographer, would you still give him/her extra tips and pointers on the picture he/she posted? After you gave the photographer pointers and find out that he/she is a NG photographer.'

I do this thing called TOK (Theory of Knowledge) and its partly physcology and partly philosophy and these are the things I study. I have been observing this phenomenon for quite some time already. Have you noticed this about people too? Its a really strange thing - Whenever there is a negative opinion about someone or something, people's thoughts are tended to the negative. But when the opinion changes, people's opinion change too.

By the way, don't flame me. Just a test on your minds! ;) Any comments on this?

Cheers,
Nick
 

photographs are like fine wine. you can't tell which vineyard and which vintage the fine wine comes from just by tasting the wine. neither can you tell which NG photog/award-winning photog/Magnum photog took the photo, let alone what camera/lens/film they used to take the photo, just by looking at the photo.

try this experiment. upload a lesser-known photo taken by a famous photog (say steve mccurry) to your online photo album, and compare how many hits and comments it receives from viewers relative to one of your own photos. you might be pleasantly surprised at the result.

:cool:
 

zaren said:
try this experiment. upload a lesser-known photo taken by a famous photog (say steve mccurry) to your online photo album, and compare how many hits and comments it receives from viewers relative to one of your own photos. you might be pleasantly surprised at the result.

:cool:

If the result is a copyright infingement lawsuit, then the I don't think it will be such a pleasant surprise. ;)

Please be cautious.
 

roygoh said:
If the result is a copyright infingement lawsuit, then the I don't think it will be such a pleasant surprise. ;)

Please be cautious.

thanks for the reminder. ok...obtain permission from steve mccurry first (tell him it's for a research project).

:cool:
 

zaren said:
photographs are like fine wine. you can't tell which vineyard and which vintage the fine wine comes from just by tasting the wine. neither can you tell which NG photog/award-winning photog/Magnum photog took the photo, let alone what camera/lens/film they used to take the photo, just by looking at the photo.

try this experiment. upload a lesser-known photo taken by a famous photog (say steve mccurry) to your online photo album, and compare how many hits and comments it receives from viewers relative to one of your own photos. you might be pleasantly surprised at the result.

:cool:

zaren, maybe u can send me 1 of your super street shoot pic ... i upload & c ... :D
 

nickmak said:
Hi,

I'm not trying to be controversial here but I was wondering on the following thing:

'If say a National Geographic photographer were to post a picture here but you do not know that he/she actually is a NG photographer, would you still give him/her extra tips and pointers on the picture he/she posted? After you gave the photographer pointers and find out that he/she is a NG photographer.'

I do this thing called TOK (Theory of Knowledge) and its partly physcology and partly philosophy and these are the things I study. I have been observing this phenomenon for quite some time already. Have you noticed this about people too? Its a really strange thing - Whenever there is a negative opinion about someone or something, people's thoughts are tended to the negative. But when the opinion changes, people's opinion change too.

By the way, don't flame me. Just a test on your minds! ;) Any comments on this?

Cheers,
Nick


hmm ? i've always thought this was a normal human psychological phenomenon.

it's like artwork by say, leonardo da vinci is always good, but a similar looking piece done by say, mr lim ah kow, is just crap. i mean, even on CS you'll notice the same phenomenon, where works posted by some people are always "good".

as for the "following the crowd" opinion thingy, yes i believe that is true too. if in the situation you described, a NG photog came and posted, his works may be crap, but if somebody suddenly recognises him and say, "hrrm an't you the NG photographer ? this ain't a bad piece.. pretty nice !" probably there will be others going "wow NG photographer ! yeah nice photo !".

i guess it's normal phenomenon.
 

renegade said:
zaren, maybe u can send me 1 of your super street shoot pic ... i upload & c ... :D

doh....i said STEVE MCCURRY lah..... dun take the ez way out! :bsmilie:
 

Yeah, this has been true ever since.... I guess that's how you get fables like The Emperor's New Clothes. Its a human thing. Some people are more susceptable to peer pressure and group mentality.

Look at the bubble tea syndrome. Or the fashion industry. Or the IT industry (whats the latest, hottest, sexiest technology). Or the photographic industry. The hype and lingo becomes so common that if you are not famillar with it, you become perceived as outdated.

The opposite is true. When someone gets condemned, its hard for him to redeem himself. Esp if he does not have enough supporters. Its like how majority of the people will side with the winning team coz no one wants to be a looser or be associated with one. Is this fair? Probably not but that's the way it works. Its all perception and group consensus.

Hype works and that's how and why marketing goes. And that's the way the cookie crumbles. ;)

Do let us know how your project goes... its an interesting one.
 

It only applies to some people. In time you will learn which are the ones that do and which don't.

Conversely, sometimes a greater reputation leads to a higher expectation of results.

How many of you have ever looked at a photo of some better known person and thought "he should be shooting better stuff than this, heck even I can take this shot."
 

yo nick! cool thought cos i too feel the same way abt what you say...i too do agree with that sequitur said. psychological!
 

khairi said:
yo nick! cool thought cos i too feel the same way abt what you say...i too do agree with that sequitur said. psychological!
Yea its true I guess.

Its just that its bugging me about how people (Sorry for the generalisation, cuz I'm susceptible to it too... besides, we're humans!) and their opinion can change so rapidly because of reputation. Sometimes when I hear my friends or family talk, they're opinions keep changing and I stop them and ask 'Eh, didn't you say it was good/bad just now?' and 'Why did you suddenly change opinion again?' The reply would be, 'Huh? Really? I didn't know that!'

Its kinda odd but I guess I'm not the only one who thinks about these things! :bsmilie:
 

Somehow this discussion reminds me of the 'bashing' John Clang got recently on CS...
 

ST1100 said:
Somehow this discussion reminds me of the 'bashing' John Clang got recently on CS...
Well I hope not! :bsmilie:

As said in #1: 'By the way, don't flame me.' So I'm not asking a question to be flamed... hehe...

Everybody has their differences in their opinions and I'm just putting forward a neutral and hopefully unbiased question here on something that I have noticed for quite a long time now... I don't expect any arguments - not that I want any. But its a question that makes me think are we really humans or sheep? Btw, I know there are always exceptions so yea...

Regards,
Nick
 

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