Caught in the Net!

The web world is flooded with options for amateur and professional photographers with flickr.com being arguably the most popular and widely used photo-sharing site these days. It offers free and unlimited Pro option with geotagging. One does not need to have an account to explore the ‘works’ of all the ‘photographers’ unless they are marked otherwise. Click any random picture at Flickr and you will see comments like ‘well done’, ‘great capture’ showered like the monsoon rain. Snapfish, Shutterfly, Picassa among many others are popular photo-sharing destinations. No denying the fact that it’s great opportunity for all to share their captures but in many cases the message gets lost. Are we discouraging the trend? Not at all, it’s the finest way to share your work, find out what others are up to and learn new things. “But what is happening is that it’s become more of a ‘praise all’ exercise. Members just end up praising each other’s photographs whether or not they are good, sometimes they also give wrong suggestions,” Subhash Sapru, a photography enthusiast, narrates,” there were some comments on a picture clicked by friend, saying that she should have used flash. But flash would have taken away the character of the photograph. I have seen many people going by set norms and not experimenting.” There is no check on what is uploaded, anybody can claim himself to be a pro.

“There are two aspects to it. One that the web has brought photography to the masses, but the question is whether real photography is being promoted,” Mohali based photographer Navneet Saxena argues. “Technology is becoming so easy that nobody wants to focus. There are certain websites that monitor the content flowing in and rates them accordingly. It’s essential that members get the right guidance. As for the free flow of the comments, in the market the good, bad and ugly get segregated on their own. Those who are good will survive, the rest will be happy with the comments alone!” All said and done the websites are a platform for anybody who wants to start a career and remain connected. “The web has made it a lot easier to see what is going on in the world circuit, but then it also ends up making imitators of those who may have the creativity to so something really good,” Raghu Rai advises upcoming photographers to keep trying new things and believe in their gut instinct. “Early in the careers it is easy to get carried away, no matter what the comments keep your heads between the shoulder and keep on doing your work. Be you own judge and critic and never ever let the urge to learn fade away.” Keep surfing!