Spring Exhibition

This week has been the photography club spring exhibition. For this exhibition I submitted three photos:

"One"

Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX2

1/6 sec, F4.0, ISO400

Kuromon Market, Osaka

24th April, 2010

"Two wings"

Nikon F50, with AF Nikkor 35-80mm F3.5 lens

Fujichrome Provia 100F

Matsushima Bay, Miyagi prefecture

March 2010

"Three of us - model, camera, and I"

Diana+, with 55mm wide-angle lens

Fujichrome Velvia 50, cross-processed

Osaka University Minoh campus

Model: Morgan

April 2010

The exhibition ends tomorrow. Today I was helping out at the welcome desk, and had the chance to read through some of the comments we've received in the past few days. There are many excellent photos by other students (foreign and Japanese). Obviously I tried to look for those who commented on my photos.

Out of the three photos I've submitted, I've received comments for only the first two, most comments were for the seagull shot. People who liked it commented on how it captures the moment. One said that they noticed the person feeding the seagull was virtually out of the picture, which he/she didn't like. A few liked my photo of the man sitting alone in a cafe in Osaka. I took that photo when Andrew and I were sipping coffee/tea at this old-fashion cafe in Kuromon Market.

I did receive a comment on both the man and the seagull photos which particularly caught my attention - it read like this:「選び抜かれた作品だと思う。‘作品’ として価値がある。」

My interpretation of those two sentences is "these are works that have been [carefully] chosen. They deserve to be pieces [on their own merit]".

Obviously it could be interpreted in other ways, but I think this comment is a positive one. When I read it, I swear my pride/confidence started to float out of my body to some higher place. It's nice to receive feedback, whether negative or positive, because they help us to be better photographers. And when we get praises from people we don't know at all, it's such a confidence boost and great motivation to make us wanting to go beyond what we can do.

Morgan's four photos (1. Daan, 2. Seb, 3. Engagement, 4. Leap) have received many positive feedback, too. These aren't the official titles for the photos, they're longer and contain an in-joke about Daan's "homosexuality". Morgan's photos are all available for viewing on her Flickr photostream, please visit 'cause she's very selective about her photos so only the best get uploaded! In constrast to my upload-almost-every-photo-I-like policy...but still, drop by my Flickr photostream too please!