An open challenge to everyone, especially gearheads.

And yes, I do fall into the category of "gearheads", just in case anyone was wondering. : )

I want to see your "good" photographs. Please allow me to explain what I mean by that. In a recent discussion on the difference between "eye candy" and "meaningful" photos:

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1018&message=26475436

one person offered, what I think to be, an outstanding way to clarify the differeces between the two. He quoted David Vestal's "The Craft Of Photography" where Vestal made the following comment:

"What Makes a Picture "Good" ? If a picture is lively or pertinent, and worth seeing, that is what matters. Only weak pictures need perfection. Strong ones can survive considerable faults."

That struck a strong chord with me. Most of my images rely on technical perfection -- thus my strong "need" for better equipment. Going through my galleries, I noticed that while, of course, the technical perfection of the images was highly dependent upon the equipment, I generally only uploaded images which represented the best technical images I could capture at the time. Only a handful had obvious and severe flaws yet still made it into my galleries. Why is that? And, while they're in my galleries, only one of the images below has even been printed.

Canon 20D + 85mm / 1.8 @ f / 1.8, 1/30, ISO 6400

http://www.pbase.com/joemama/image/48462467

Canon 5D + 50mm / 1.4 @ f / 1.4, 1/25, ISO 6400

http://www.pbase.com/joemama/image/64700748

Canon 5D + 50 / 1.2L @ f / 1.2, 1/200, ISO 1600

http://www.pbase.com/joemama/image/80385029

Canon 5D + 50 / 1.2L @ f / 1.2, 1/1600, ISO 125

http://www.pbase.com/joemama/image/82856263

Canon 300D + Sigma 18-50 / 2.8 @ 40mm, f / 2.8, 1/2, ISO 1600

http://www.pbase.com/joemama/image/35681580

So, here's my challenge to all of you: post your images that have "survived" considerable faults. Actually, not merely "survived", but are pretty much just as good whether or not you could have gotten the shot with greater technical perfection. That is, don't post a pic 'cause it's meaningful to you and it's the only one you have of that scene. Post a pic that has significant technical faults but those faults really don't even matter in the image, and you don't feel regret for having botched the shot.

In other words, show me your pics that are "good", not your missed attempts at "eye candy".

--
--joe

http://www.josephjamesphotography.com
http://www.pbase.com/joemama/