Did I Really do That?

As most of you know, I post my pictures on Flickr. I usually submit them to different Flickr groups for critiquing. Of course, I critique others' pictures, too. Some of the critiques have really helped me. Here's an example:

I cropped this, based on some critiques I'd received. The original version was this:

I definitely feel that the first one is better, and am grateful to the people who recommended the cropping.

Sometimes, I don't agree with the critiques. Here's an example:

I happen to love this picture, and I received less-than-good feedback on it. I didn't take it personally at all - it's still a picture that I love very much. I like the lines and the blurry background.

Rarely do I let such critiques affect my work. Earlier in the week, though, there was a notable exception to this. I really really love this picture:

It's soft, and it's almost maternal in look and feel. It's hard to explain, but that's my opinion. I received good critiques about it for weeks, but then last week, some less-than-favorable comments came in. Specifically, that the picture wasn't in focus.

So for some reason, I took it personally. I edited out a large number of greenhouse pictures because I over-scrutinized them. All of a sudden, 20+ pictures weren't good enough. How irrational is that?

Anyway, I caught myself doing this earlier in the week, so a few days later, I went back into Aperture, and I posted those shots. They were the following:

For many reasons, I really like these! To think that I almost didn't post them ... Well, if this ever happens again, I'll remind myself of this incident and blog post and how silly I was. And that's my advice to you - if you like your pictures, then you like them. If they're flawed for some reason, then that's one thing, but otherwise, it's not your issue. Not everyone has the same taste as you, but don't reevaluate your entire portfolio unnecessarily.

Oh, and before I forget, here is the full picture of yesterday's top half shot:

Nice, no? I almost didn't post this one, either - but changed my mind.

Till Monday!