Erm, sure we've seen this lot before

Another group of old Rolls Royces kicking around the Alps. The only conclusion (made by my Operations Director) is that it's the first group returning from where-ever they went several days ago. Not a bad vehicle to be first into the camera this morning.

Bit of a rant though.

Last night I went looking for comments about my fotos. This is always a bad thing as all my friends know that I take criticism really really badly. And I found a group of bitching Germans from last year on a forum somewhere.

They were comparing my work to another photographer in France somewhere, Col de Iz-something. Apparently his stuff is much better than my stuff.

So I had a look at his stuff. OMG.

A couple of the complaints about my photos; I sit on a 180degree corner and my photos aren't as good as the ones from France, I leave a gap in front of my photos, and the photos have no motion blur. So I stewed about this all night as you do.

The other photographer takes photos on a straight bit of road, against a skyline that could be anywhere in the Alps frankly. Drop the skyline and you could put virtually any skyline you wanted in, from Rome to London. Heck, why not just put a back drop of Alaska in. That's how sterile the photos are.

Nothing about the shot says where it's from. And all the shots the guy takes are the same thing. 3-4 identical shots. With the camera at a 35degree angle (which I hate). He even adds a graphic in to remind people where it was taken - that's the only clue.

Compared to my shots - I take a sequence of shots of people going round a corner. The rider concentrates on the job at hand for the most part. I give people a choice of which pose was best when they go round the corner. I have my favourite pose of course, other people like different angles.

And what's the point of photographing people on Stelvio if you can't see it's Stelvio in the first place? It's a fantastic place to be, so why not include a little of the scenery?

I do leave a space in front of vehicles as well - because moving objects move into the space you leave. It's a photographic rule about taking a shot of a vehicle - it needs space. And heck if you don't like the space, crop it out.

No motion blur - wreck your foto in Photoshop if you want. But I'm working on numbers, I need as many sellable photos as I can make. If I shoot slower then I'm in danger of wrecking too many shots. As I said, effects can be added afterwards.

But what bugs me most is that I sell my shots for 8E, the competition starts at 14E for a 1600px wide photo, and 18E for the full resolution. A full 10E more. And because all his shots are identical, he'll sell one photo per vehicle.

There is a reason the guy charges 10E more than me - it's because every time he clicks the shutter on his soulless photographs, a little bit of him dies. 10E extra is just compensation for his crushed dreams as a photographer. Instead, he's merely an automated speed camera, but without the speed bit.

I put money on it that every night, when reviewing his soul crushing photos, he cries into his camera bag.

I don't! I review my photos and find the best ones! I may get some (a lot) photos utterly wrong, but heck, I look at some of my photos and think - dayam - that's a good shot. And then I post it to Blipfoto ;)

And sometimes I just post crap to Blipfoto.