testmeat photoblog

i've written before about 500px which is a photo sharing website in a similar mould to flickr. the difference seems to be that you are encouraged to only upload the best of the best of your photos, and as a result the images there are nothing short of astonishing. everytime i feel like i'm getting good at photography a quick visit to the site brings me back down to earth and reminds me how fallible i am. it would be easy to blame not being in the right place at the right time, but as well as plenty of you'd have to be there shots there are lots of really creative ideas - for example this daffodil or this dancer. both of those shots appear on the editors' choice page, which are hand picked shots the site regards as extra special. i've made it my mission to work my way onto that page, but i haven't succeeded with my first 50+ photos so i don't expect to complete that anytime soon. i was thinking of this when i visited guatape in colombia, which is a small town near medellin. you can climb over 600 steps to the top of a rock and have a view over the whole town, which is made up of a series of islands poking out over a man-made lake. it was a stunning view which made for great photographs, but i lamented the lack of mist, or sunset, or other dramatic lighting which in my head would have transformed a good shot into an amazing one. i don't know if that's a healthy attitude which leads to self improvement, or an unhealthy one which starts with unrealistic expectations and ends with unjustified disappointment. meh - it's not going to stop me posting photos that i like, even if that sentiment isn't universally shared.

here's the original