Jeff Smallwood Photography
6 posts matching the topic "opinion"     [clear topic filter]
Don't Be Late - A Poem
Aug 6, 2013
Sometimes we need the innocence of youth to remind us what's important...this time captured in a poem.
In Search of Bigfoot and Facebook Photo Quality
Jul 21, 2013
I've been asked why I frequently post only smaller size photos to Facebook and why I provide links to my photography website for the same shot. The answer boils down to quality. This is not about the content of the photos on Facebook, but rather the digital quality that Facebook uses to display them. To be straight with you, Facebook photo quality sucks. Here's a prime example.
No Photo For You! - A Soup Nazi Perspective on Photography and Aspect Ratios
May 20, 2013
If you were upright and breathing during the mid 1990s, you probably remember the pop culture phenomenon and oft-quoted “Soup Nazi” from the show “Seinfeld”. His signature "no soup for you!" just flew in the face of the old saying "the customer is always right".
However, when the worlds of art and business cross paths, sometimes the artist has to make artistic choices that can be misunderstood as not putting the customer first. Providing prints in any and every aspect ratio under the sun is just one of those rules. Read more about why this matters and how it can help you become a better photographer.
To watermark or not to watermark...Is that the question?
Jan 9, 2013
I don't watermark my photographs, except under very specific circumstances. Why? Because there's a distinction between what watermarking does and does not do.

Take a look at the images in this post. How much time did you spend looking at the photo, allowing your eye to follow the flow, the lines, shapes, colors? How much time did you spend concentrating and taking in the details of the shot? And then how much time was spent noticing and reading the watermark?

Politics and Photo Editing Do Not Mix
Oct 29, 2012
This post is not a political post, this is a digital editing and forensics post. My commentary here should not be confused with an endorsement of any candidate for the US Presidency (and yes, there are more than two candidates to choose from). But this is what happens when you put high profile photography in the hands of an amatuer...
Break Through the Funk
Feb 7, 2012
I've been going through a period lately where I thought everything I took was crap. I was struggling to keep my eye and produce any shots I felt really confident about. A lot of scenes I was shooting just felt like lost opportunities once I looked at the results. In the past my reaction to feeling like this has been to back away, keep the camera out of sight and not push it. This worked before by allowing the creativity to come back on its own but I've never felt very positive about that approach.