Digital BW, The Print

>Being a "commercial shooter" does not mean anything when it comes to being
creative.  It certainly does not make one an 'expert' at photography any
more than >some of the 'look at my family pics'  photographers.  And, in
general, the family pics have a lot more validity for a lot longer time than
99.999999% of the >commercial work.  And, it's ok if you don't like family
pics.

>Tom Baker

Point taken Tom, but you are still missing the point (are you one of the
guilty ones???). I never maintained being a commercial shooter makes me
better than anyone else . . . the only thing it has taught me through the
years is to be, in a word, ruthless . . . first with my own work and
criteria, and then with those who aspire to be something they might not be
(I apply it to mechanics at garages also . . . I used to race motorcycles).
The point that you and so many others are missing is that while XXX thinks
his/her photos are good/great/mediocre, while the family won't come over to
see the neverending slide show, they then revert to internet terrorism, "I
know, I will put up a web gallery so the whole world can see (suffer)".

As an aside, and a practical point, if "photographers", "artists" learned to
be more honest and reduce the content (you already know I call it something
else), bandwith usage would be reduced considerably . . . re: faster
connections, less useless search engine hits and finally a truly useful
world wide web as opposed to an internut stupor highway. ;-)))

Paul Aparycki