Is there a reason for images on forums?

[Mark Sawyer]

Ok. I'll be the contrarian. I think this is stupid. It's like a thread for 14 year old girls.

Yes, if you're an eleven year old girl.

Either your different forum personas can't agree, or I'm getting worse...

[Jim Jones]

If you are a writer who must publish or perish, you (or at least Susan Sontag) doesn't need photographs to enhance an entire book about photography. However, Sontag's On Photography says more about society and Sontag's limitations than about photography. We can do better here with photos.

[jnantz]

Simple. Why post images on the forums?
Is it possible for any commentary beyond aperture, GPS coordinates, etc?

(I left teaching about thirty years ago, because I couldn't get over the 19 year olds problems.)

hi marfa

not sure why .. i guess maybe why not?
for probably the first maybe 16 years of this forum's life there were no images, it was a text only website ..
( http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-an...at+photography )
unless you were web savvy enough to host an image and hot link to it ...

its kind of funny really because i would imagine that the actual images people post
here or anywhere else don't look exactly like what they post ...
they aren't the same size, the same tones the same sharpness or diffuseness or anything.

but i guess i should add ( in addition to why not ) because it is nice for someone to be able
to see what someone else is up to seeing on the internet the neighbor's dog could be suggesting
he has an ebony 8x10 camera, a schneider xxl550 and a darkroom with $100,000 worth of
equipment.

[Jim Noel]

I've contributed to this forum, off and on, for about a decade, without posting an image or commenting on another forum-member's image. I feel that photographic images on the Internet are very poor shadows of well-made original prints. Any meaningful aesthetic consideration is obliterated by the distortions and inadequacies of the Little Screen. But I suppose there are reasons for posting images here and on other forums. The alleviation of loneliness is a good reason that I can respect. Even though we are all strangers to each other, the forum seems to maintain a sense of community that is, in spite of its limitations, worthwhile. And there are practical reasons for posting images that make sense: presenting the way a technical problem has ruined a negative or print, for instance.

I'm with Michael on this.

[redrockcoulee]

Not all of us live near large galleries or musuems where we have access to seeing other works. There are books and magazines but there too unless you subscribe you do not have access to. Just before reading this thread I looked at the infrared thread and say Mat's latest posted image. It says something about what one can do with infrared film that unless you see an image you can only guess at what the poster is meaning. To drive to Ohio to see it would take close to a week round trip and to fly perhaps $1500. Maybe if you are in or near major cities it is easy to pop into galleries or good bookstore otherwise how does one actually see what a particular artist is doing or what infrared or xray film results can be.

Images seen on a computer pale compared to the real live version however not seeing them at all is very much paler. How many words would be needed to see what Jim means with his old lenses. If Jim participates in a print exchange I might be lucky enough to see an example of what his lenses and style is like but otherwise it is 1500 km each way trip, or one could look at images on line. To me not seeing something is much less of an experience than seeing it posted here or another on line means. I invite all those on this forum in the Eastern Unitied State or Europe to drop by to see this neat pinhole paper negative I made, between 9 and 10 would be the best. By the way I do not have a scanner for large format and do not think I have posted an image here however I have learnt from those images that have been posted and got impressions of techiniques and equipment that I would most likely not be able to otherwise. The closet LF group to me is the one in Calgary and to make their meeting and see actual work would mean 6 hours of driving after work plus the meeting time and to get up with only 3 to 4 hours sleep. And for much of the year it is driving that distance in the dark and with snow and blowing snow. Me I would perfer on line images to that drive.

[goamules]

Why? For the same reason there are magazines about sailing, astronaut camps on earth, computer games on growing vegetables.

Wait....why am I answering the OP? He's moved on, after starting another cryptic, inane post. Has anyone looked at his other posts? Try it, click the user profile then View Forum Posts! You will be rewarded by many that also make no sense. Here's an example: http://www.largeformatphotography.in...543#post977543

[welly]

Why? For the same reason there are magazines about sailing, astronaut camps on earth, computer games on growing vegetables.

Wait....why am I answering the OP? He's moved on, after starting another cryptic, inane post. Has anyone looked at his other posts? Try it, click the user profile then View Forum Posts! You will be rewarded by many that also make no sense. Here's an example: http://www.largeformatphotography.in...543#post977543

His link to the ebay film sales was brilliant though. But the rest..

[Michael Alpert]

Why? For the same reason there are magazines about sailing, astronaut camps on earth, computer games on growing vegetables.

Wait....why am I answering the OP? He's moved on, after starting another cryptic, inane post. Has anyone looked at his other posts? Try it, click the user profile then View Forum Posts! You will be rewarded by many that also make no sense. Here's an example: http://www.largeformatphotography.in...543#post977543

Garrett, The OP's other posts suggest that English is not the poster's first language. I think he is asking why people post images here. It's not an outrageous question. It's like asking why we go to so much trouble to make photographs the way we do. I am sure there are many sensible, varied reasons for posting images. I don't post images, but that doesn't mean that I am not interested in reading other perspectives on this subject.

[Vaughn]

Nudes?

[soeren]

Well How would you descripe the rendering of a Voigtländer XXX lens? or the result from a given process, type of film or or or. This is after all a photography forum we are supposed to discuss large format photography, Inspire and motivate each other here. Sometimes that is done best by posting pics.
Maybe its just me but I think I detect some not so polite posts in this thread. Could people please be positive and constructive in their feedback. You don't have to agree or think that something is a good idea/question but please say so in a positive and constructive way instead of calling people stupid.
Best regards