What am I, chopped liver? On crafting a self-realized response … « Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

What am I, chopped liver? On crafting a self-realized response ...

What’s Up?

I was in a bit of a funk on Wednesday and spent most of the day on the couch watching movies. The best was Training Day with a very evil Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke. I was back in top form on Thursday morning after sleeping 10 hours, a record for me. I was glad to learn the IPT veteran Chuck Murphy signed uo for the DeSoto Spring IPT. That leaves just two spots open.

I am sure that Anita will be thrilled to see all of your comments on her work. Right now she is in northern Manitoba hoping to photograph baby polar bears coming out of their dens. At -50 below F. …

with love, artie

Cheap Gatorland Saturdays

You are invited to join me at Gatorland on SAT 2 MAR as below. I will be offering these sessions from here on until further notice. If you are interested in this or any upcoming Saturday, please get in touch via e-mail or call my cell at 863-221-2372. Limit three photographers.

Morning Session — 7-10am: $200
Morning Session with working lunch including image review and Photoshop: $300.
All of the above with a late afternoon session from 4pm till closing: $400.



IPT Updates

I still need three folks for the Galapagos trip, and the UK Puffins and Gannets trip is wide open with only a single registrant. Please shoot me an e-mail to learn about the huge late registration discount on the Galapagos trip.

  • The 2019 Fort DeSoto Spring IPT/THURS 18 APRIL through the morning session on SUNDAY APRIL 21, 2019: 3 1/2 DAYS: $1549. Limit 8/Openings: 4. Meet and greet at 7PM on the evening of WED 17 APRIL.
  • The New, Expanded 2019 UK Puffins, Gannets, & Red Kites IPT. Thursday June 27 (from EDI) through Tuesday, July 9, 2019 (on the ground; fly home on Wednesday July 10.): $9,999. Limit 10 photographers/Openings: 9. This trip needs four to run. Co-leader: Peter Kes.
  • The GALAPAGOS Photo Cruise of a Lifetime IPT/The Complete Galapagos Photographic Experience. July 23 to August 6, 2019 on the boat. 13 FULL and two half-days of photography: $14,499. Limit: 12 photographers/Openings: 4. Please e-mail to learn about the huge late registration discount for this trip.


BIRDS AS ART

BIRDS AS ART is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Selling Your Used Photo Gear Through BIRDS AS ART

Selling your used (or like-new) photo gear through the BAA Blog is a great idea. We charge only a 5% commission. One of the more popular used gear for sale sites charged a minimum of 20%. Plus assorted fees! Yikes. They went out of business. And e-Bay fees are now up to 13%. The minimum item price here is $500 (or less for a $25 fee). If you are interested please scroll down here or shoot us an e-mail with the words Items for Sale Info Request cut and pasted into the Subject line :). Stuff that is priced fairly — I offer pricing advice to those who agree to the terms — usually sells in no time flat. Over the past year, we have sold many dozens of items. Do know that prices on some items like the EOS-1D Mark IV, the old Canon 100-400, the old 500mm, the EOS-7D and 7D Mark II and the original 400mm DO lens have been dropping steadily. Most recently the price of used Canon 600mm f/L IS II lenses have been dropping like a rock with the introduction of the 600 III. You can always see the current listings by clicking here or on the Used Photo Gear tab on the orange-yellow menu bar near the top of each blog post page.

Important Used Gear Note

All sales include insured ground shipping via major courier to lower 48 US addresses only.

Sony a7R III Mirrorless Camera Body

John Bowden is offering a Sony a7R III mirrorless camera in near-mint condition for $2298.00. The body was purchased from an authorized Sony dealer on 9/12/18. Included is the original box and everything that came in it (except the hot shoe cap): the front body cap, the neck strap, the manuals, the original battery, the battery charger and power cord, the USB Type C cable, the cable protector, the reference guide and insured ground shipping via UPS to the lower 48 after their check clears.

Please contact John via e-mail or by phone at 919-358-5717 (Eastern time zone).

With 10 fps and an excellent AF system the 42.4MP a7R III image files are spectacular. As it sells new for $2998.00 you can save a neat $700.00 by grabbing John’s lens now. artie

Sony FE 24-105mm F4 G OSS Lens

John Bowden is also offering a Sony FE 24-105mm F4 G OSS lens in like-new condition for $998.00. It was purchased from an authorized Sony dealer on 9/18/18. Included is the original box and everything that came in it, the the front and rear caps, the lens shade, the soft case, the instruction manual, and insured ground shipping via UPS to the lower 48 after their check clears.

Please contact John via e-mail or by phone at 919-358-5717 (Eastern time zone).

The versatile lenses in this focal length range are in the never-leave-home-without-them class. They are great for bird scapes, scenics, quasi-macro stuff, people, and just about anything else. As the lens sells new for $1398 you can save 400 of your hard-earned dollars. artie

Sony Vario-Tessar T* FE 16-35mm f/4 ZA OSS Lens

John Bowden is also offering a Sony Vario-Tessar T* FE 16-35mm f/4 ZA OSS lens in near-mint condition for $848.00. The sale includes the original box and everything that came in it: the front and rear caps, the lens shade, the soft case, the instruction manual and insured ground shipping via UPS to the lower 48 after their check clears.

Please contact John via e-mail or by phone at 919-358-5717 (Eastern time zone).

This outstandingly sharp versatile lens is a landscape and general photographers dream for fill frame Sony camera bodies. It sells new for $1248.00 so you can save $400.00 by getting in touch with John now. artie

Money Saving Reminder

If you need a hot photo item that is out of stock at B&H, would enjoy free overnight shipping, and would like a $50 discount on your first purchase, click here to order and enter the coupon code BIRDSASART at checkout. If you are looking to strike a deal on Canon or Nikon gear (including the big telephotos) or on a multiple item order, contact Steve Elkins via e-mail or on his cell at (479) 381-2592 (Eastern time) and be sure to mention your BIRDSASART coupon code and use it for your online order. Steve currently has several D850s in stock along with a Nikon 600mm f/4 VR. He is taking pre-orders for the new Nikon 500 P and the Nikon Z6 mirrorless camera body.

Gear Questions and Advice

Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of photographers whom I see in the field and on BPN, are–out of ignorance–using the wrong gear especially when it comes to tripods and more especially, tripod heads… Please know that I am always glad to answer your gear questions via e-mail. Those questions might deal with systems, camera bodies, accessories, and/or lens choices and decisions.

This image was created on the third afternoon of the Spoonbill Boat IPT. I used the hand held Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 500mm f/5.6E PF ED VR lens, the Nikon AF-S Teleconverter TC-14E III, and my souped up Nikon D850. ISO 800. Matrix metering plus 1/3 stop off the sky: 1/2500 sec. at f/8 was more than a stop under-exposed. (Even though the skies were clear, it was late in the day; the light was very soft and, in addition, it was a bit hazy.) NATURAL AUTO WB at 5:27pm on a clear afternoon.

Nikon Focus Peaking fine-tune value: 0. See the Nikon AF Fine-tune e-Guide here.

Center Group (grp)/Continuous (C in Nikon/AI Servo with Canon) AF was active at the moment of exposure. The array was centered on the bird’s face; good on me. This image is perfectly sharp on the eye.

Brown Pelican — forward-facing/turning left flight pose

What am I, chopped liver?

The following comment came up for moderation last week on the Flight Poses and Wings Positions: Part I of Many. And a killer forward-facing/turning left flight image made with the 500 PF/TC-E14/D850 Rig blog post here.

Andrew Browne

Sorry Art. On my iMac the brown pelican looks very plastic and over processed. I have the PF 500mm lens on my D500, don’t use a teleconverter on it because the images just lose so much detail, and much more if you crop the images. I concentrate on trying to get closer to the birds or just don’t bother to keep the images. I definitely wouldn’t post such an image. Cheers AB

My initial response was to delete it rather than to defend and attack as the image in question (above) is one of the finest flight images I have made over the course of the past 35 years. It is sharp and well processed and the image quality is superb. (Don’t forget to ask yourself, what the heck does he know?) In any case I deleted it.

The question remains, How do you come up with a civil, self-realized response to off the wall comments?

On Crafting a self-realized response …

After some thought, I came up with this:

Thanks for sharing your thoughts Andrew. I asked myself if your comments could in any way be accurate. To check on that, I posted the image in the Avian Forum on Bird Photographer’s where I participate daily. We specialize in honest critiques done gently, and trust me, the boys and girls do not hesitate to take shots at Mr. Famous Bird Photographer. You can see their comments on the image in question here.

Pretty much everyone thought that the image quality was excellent. Arash Hazeghi, the super-critical sharpness king of the world wrote, Sharpness and IQ look great from here. Krishna Prasad Kotti commented that the details on the bird looked over-sharpened to me on my monitor. Then Dorian Anderson countered that with I don’t see any sharpening issues. The lighting on the face is really nice, and I love how we can see every feather in the wings. The flight angle and diagonal position really work well. I cannot believe how long the wings appear. The detail looks good …

Therefore Andrew, I must respectfully disagree with your assessment of the image. As your opinion was somewhat vehement (I definitely wouldn’t post such an image) and might be considered insulting by some, I would offer several suggestions:

  • 1-If you wear glasses, clean them.
  • 2- If not, get a pair.
  • 3- Purchase a new, high-quality laptop. See the blog post here and please remember to use my link.
  • 4- Join an IPT so that I can see your work up close and personal.
  • 5- Consider joining BPN.
  • with love, artie

    Thoughts?

    So you post an image that you know based on 35 years of bird photography is pretty darned good and someone tells you that it is pretty much garbage …

    Would you have deleted his comment?

    If not, how would you have responded?

    Please note that I wanted to post my response to Andrew’s comment but had already emptied the Spam folder … (When comments are deleted they are marked as Spam.)

    Fort DeSoto in spring is rife with tame birds, many in full breeding plumage. Click on the composite to enjoy a larger version.

    Clockwise from upper left around to center: Laughing Gull landing on head of Brown Pelican, Laughing Gull in flight, Reddish Egret sunrise silhouette, Great Blue Heron with needlefish, Yellow-crowned Night Heron with ghost crab, Roseate Spoonbill, Sanderling in breeding plumage, and white morph Reddish Egret in glorious breeding plumage.

    The 2019 Fort DeSoto Spring IPT/THURS 18 APRIL through the morning session on SUNDAY APRIL 21, 2019: 3 1/2 DAYS: $1549. Limit 8/Openings: 4. Meet and greet at 7PM on the evening of WED 17 APRIL.

    Fort DeSoto, located just south of St. Petersburg, FL, is a mecca for a great variety of migrant shorebirds, gulls, terns, and passerines in Spring. Many of the gulls and terns will be courting and copulating. There the migrants join hundreds of Florida resident egrets, herons, night-herons, and pelicans on the T-shaped peninsula. We should get to photograph one of Florida’s most desirable shorebird species: Marbled Godwit. Black-bellied Plover and Willet are easy, American Oystercatcher almost guaranteed. Great Egret, Snowy Egret, Great Blue Heron, Tricolored Heron, and White Ibis are easy as well and many of those will be in their spectacular breeding plumages. Yellow-crowned Night-Heron is a strong possibility. We may get to see and photograph the amazing heron/egret hybrid that has been present for three years. And we should enjoy some great Brown Pelican flight photography. In addition, Royal, Sandwich, Forster’s, and Caspian Terns will likely provide us with some good flight opportunities as well. Though not guaranteed, Roseate Spoonbill and Wood Stork might well be expected. And we will be on the lookout for a migrant passerine fallout in the event of a thunderstorm or two. Yikes, I almost forgot to mention that nearly all of the birds are ridiculously tame!

    Yes, Fort DeSoto in spring is rife with tame birds, most in breeding plumage. Click on the composite to enjoy a larger version.

    Clockwise from upper left around to center: breeding plumage Dunlin, dark morph Reddish Egret displaying, Laughing Gull vertical front-end portrait, Laughing Gull with prey item, landing on head of Brown Pelican, breeding plumage Royal Tern displaying, Royal Terns — pre-copulatory stance, Laughing Gulls copulating, Laughing Gull head portrait, breeding plumage Sandwich Tern with fish, and a rare treat, a breeding plumage White-rumped Sandpiper.

    Just some of the stuff you will learn …

    On the IPT you will learn basics and fine points of digital exposure and to get the right exposure every time after making a single test exposure, how to approach free and wild birds without disturbing them, to understand and predict bird behavior, to identify many species of shorebirds, to spot the good situations, to choose the best perspective, to see and understand the light, and to design pleasing images by mastering your camera’s AF system. Most importantly you will surely learn to evaluate wind and sky conditions and understand how they affect bird photography. And you will learn how and why to work in Manual mode (even if you’re scared of it).

    Again, Fort DeSoto in spring is rife with tame birds, most in breeding plumage. Click on the composite to enjoy a larger version.

    Clockwise from upper left around to center: Laughing Gull in flight, Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, Sandwich Terns copulating, Roseate Spoonbill, Great Egret with reflection, breeding plumage Short-billed Dowitcher, American Oystercatcher, Royal Tern, white morph Reddish Egret, and Snowy Egret in marsh.

    What we do

    There will be seven shooting sessions in all: four 3+ hours morning session and three 2 1/2 hour afternoon sessions. There will be a Photoshop/image review session during or after lunch (lunch is included) on each of the three full days. That will be followed by Instructor Nap Time.

    The best airport is Tampa (TPA). Once you register, you will receive an e-mail with the hotel/lodging information.

    You got it, Fort DeSoto in spring is rife with tame birds, most in breeding plumage. Click on the composite to enjoy a larger version.

    Clockwise from upper left around to center: Roseate Spoonbill, immature Brown Pelican in flight, the heron/egret hybrid, American Oystercatcher feeding, immature Royal Tern on railing, Great Egret morning silhouette, Black Skimmer in surf, and underside head portrait of Great Blue Heron.

    Signing Up

    A $500 deposit is due when you sign up and is payable by credit card. Balances must be paid by check after you register. Your deposit is non-refundable unless the IPT sells out with eight folks so please check your plans carefully before committing. You can register by calling Jim or Jennifer during weekday business hours at 863-692-0906 with a credit card in hand or by sending a check as follows: make the check out to: BIRDS AS ART and send it via US mail here: BIRDS AS ART, PO BOX 7245, Indian Lake Estates, FL 33855. You will receive a confirmation e-mail with detailed instructions, clothing, and gear advice. Please remember that the meet and greet will take place on the evening of WED 17 APRIL. Please shoot me an e-mail if you plan to register or if you have any questions.


    desoto-fall-card-a-layers

    Folks attending this IPT will be out in the field early and stay late to take advantage of sunrise and sunset colors. Click on the composite to enjoy a larger version.

    Clockwise from upper left to center: Long-billed Curlew, juvenile Tricolored Heron, Marbled Godwits, Great Blue Heron, juvenile Pectoral Sandpiper, Wood Stork, smiling Sea Scallop, Ruddy Turnstone scavenging needlefish, Great Blue Heron sunset silhouette at my secret spot, and southbound migrant tern flock blur.

    Early and Late

    Getting up early and staying out late is pretty much a staple on all BIRDS AS ART Instructional Photo-Tours; on this particular trip we will get lots of sleep as the days are short. Being in the field well before the sun comes up and staying out until sunset will often present unique photographic opportunities, opportunities that will be missed by those who need their beauty rest. I really love it when I am leaving the beach on a sunny morning after a great session just as a carful or two of well-rested photographers arrive.

    Help Support the Blog

    Please help support my efforts here on the blog by remembering to click on the logo link above each time that you shop Amazon. That would be greatly appreciated. There is no problem using your Prime account; just click on the link and log into your Prime account. With love, artie

    If In Doubt …

    If in doubt about using the BAA B&H affiliate link correctly, you can always start your search by clicking here. Please note that the tracking is invisible. Web orders only. Please, however, remember to shoot me your receipt via e-mail.





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    To show your appreciation for my continuing efforts here, we ask, as always, that you get in the habit of using my B&H affiliate links on the right side of the blog for all of your photo and electronics purchases. Please check the availability of all photographic accessories in the New BIRDS AS ART Online Store, especially the Mongoose M3.6 tripod head, Wimberley lens plates, Delkin flash cards and accessories, and LensCoat stuff.

    As always, we sell only what I have used, have tested, and can depend on. We will not sell you junk. We know what you need to make creating great images easy and fun. And please remember that I am always glad to answer your gear questions via e-mail.

    I would of course appreciate your using our B&H affiliate links for all of your major gear, video, and electronic purchases. For the photographic stuff mentioned in the paragraph above, and for everything else in the new store, we, meaning BAA, would of course greatly appreciate your business. Here is a huge thank you to the many who have been using our links on a regular basis and those who will be visiting the New BIRDS AS ART Online Store as well.

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    Typos

    In all blog posts and Bulletins, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors. Just be right :).

    21 comments to What am I, chopped liver? On crafting a self-realized response …

    • I’d be interested to hear about how Andrew is displaying images since it’s not been brought up. Any half decent – or perfectly brilliant image as is the one being brought to the question – will look like mud if the monitor ain’t right. Hell, if I change monitor profiles and then turn up the brightness, I can make all the colour look plastic too.

      Has Andrew calibrated and profiled his monitor and if so, with what and how. Because that’s a good way to get plastic colour when it’s not done right.

      1. Which monitor/Mac he is using?
      2. How old is the display/computer?
      3. What profile is he running (System Preferences > Displays > Colour) and then look at which one is selected?
      4. If available, is Night Shift turned on by any chance? That’s going to screw with colour and especially make browns look off because of the lower colour temp. (System Preferences > Displays > Display).
      5. Is the display brightness set to auto adjust? System Preferences > Displays > Display).
      6. What does a step wedge look like? http://www.cav-sfo.com/stepwedge.html Is there a separation between steps? Is there odd colour shifts in the grays?

      If brown looks plastic-like, then I’d suggest an incorrect/wrong profile and/or a monitor with brightness set too high.

      Just my AUD$0.02 worth.

      • Oh, and I’m not suggesting he does calibrate and profile his monitor. Just wondering if it was done and if that was the cause of the problem here.

    • avatar michael iantosca

      Hi Art, I had to read his post several times before deciding the post was indeed rude. A lot of what he posted was unnecessary to convey his original thought of “I just don’t care for the image”. I follow many pro photographers on the wonderful internet and all of them use teleconverters so I’m not sure what he means. Posting on another’s blog is a privilege not a right and disagreeing with a post can and should be done as civil as possible.
      Love the site, Michael

    • avatar Steve

      There are better ways you could have responded. One would have been to do nothing, on the theory that if you can’t say something nice about someone, don’t say anything at all. Another would be to have agreed to disagree with the poster — something like, “Sorry, I don’t see that. I think it’s one of my best images ever.”

      Deleting the post or responding rudely is probably not the best course of action — but don’t worry, I still enjoy your blog!

      P.S. When are the bird photography contest results going to be announced?

    • You should’ve said, “I disagree” and move on. It’s an opinion; everyone has one. You should feel free to value some over others. You think you had objective reasons to disagree. Thus, you should have discounted his opinion.

      Also, the 1st Amendment doesn’t apply because you aren’t the state. You can allow or disallow any comment you want so as to encourage the level and type of discourse you prefer to have on your site.

    • avatar Therese

      Okay, I’m going to jump in. I have a brand new iMac with a 27″ screen and I find with this new set-up that your photos do not come across crisp as with my older machine. I know it is the monitor because they are now a whopping 5120 x 2880 in dimensions. So things do look a bit more plastic/posterized. That said it is your lessons that are the most valuable and I have learned so much from over the years.

      • avatar Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

        Thanks Therese but looking at 1200 wide JPEGs on a huge screen does not make sense at least to me šŸ™‚

        with love, artie

    • Suck it up and move on Arthur, itā€™s only someone elseā€™s opinion. He is entitled to say what he likes within good taste and politeness limits. At the end of the day, if you like the image, then who cares anyway. ā€˜Birds as Artā€™ – remember, Art is subjective. Go make yourself a nice cup of tea, dunk a Ginger Nut in it, relax a while, then get out there again and give us some more superb images. Sod everyone else. . Best wishes. Richard.

    • I would’ve went with your #3 thru #5 response and just expand on that,
      since it’s obvious he’s having a problem with viewing images and being
      naĆÆve enough to think a teleconverter is basically a waste of time.

      Who knows, maybe if his monitor is that bad, he might be deleting more
      images than he should be.

      Doug

    • avatar Andrew Browne

      ā€œWhat am I, chopped liverā€.

      Hi Art
      Thanks for your response, but I didnā€™t think it would start an international incident that might spark WW111. Very Trump like!
      Iā€™m sorry and apologise that technically I apparently didnā€™t express myself properly. Regardless I personally didnā€™t like the image that you and others more qualified than me agree with you. My right and your right to personal opinions.
      Respectively, if you write a blog and invite comment then you must expect others to at times disagree with your work and thoughts….and just ā€œlumpā€ it.
      If youā€™re ā€œpissed offā€ with me, let me know and Iā€™ll unsubscribe from your blog……my loss as I enjoy but donā€™t necessarily always agree with your commentary and thoughts.
      Cheers
      Andrew

      • avatar Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

        Hi Andrew,

        You are welcome. I do not understand your Trump comment. Please explain.

        Likewise, I do not understand this at all: I apparently didnā€™t express myself properly.. Please explain that.

        If you did not like the image you might have said just that. But you opted to go on and on about your superiority, about not using TCs, about not cropping, about getting close to the birds, and about never posting an image “like that.”

        Yes, posting on the blog is your right until and unless you go out of your way to be nasty. Your original comment was very close to being nasty or perhaps downright nasty. In retrospect I should stuck to my policy of deleting nasty post and have been done with it.

        cheers, artie

    • Artie:

      You are 100% correct and on the money on your responses…

      Here are my questions and suggestions to Andrew:

      “On my iMac the brown pelican looks very plastic and over processed”. When was the last time that iMac was color calibrated and adjusted and which system was used? Does the iMac LCD still reproduce decent colors? What color space are you working on?

      “I … donā€™t use a teleconverter on it because the images just lose so much detail”. When was the last time the lens and the TC were micro adjusted to the D500? I strongly recommend Andrew to get your Nikon AF Fine-tune e-Guide along with the LensAlign MK II incl/FocusTune System, and perform micro adjustments on all his lenses and TC’s. This solution has done wonders for many of us, and I am sure it will do the same for Andrew…

      “I concentrate on trying to get closer to the birds or just donā€™t bother to keep the images.” Andrew most definitely needs to attend an IPT…

      Take care and see you soon!

    • avatar James Saxon

      John Shaw, sorry if I am wrong, said the only person you have to please is yourself with your images. I have had some “rude” comments on some of my images and I view it as an opinion and move on. I don’t find any satisfaction “venting”, although sometimes I would really like too. I post very few images but do enter contests and have had numerous “professional photographers” critique my work. I learn something to improve with each critique so I can attempt to create better images. With all the posts, photo tips, post processing tips, etc. that you provide to us almost daily please don’t let one negative comment ruin everything. Thanks for your what you do for everyone that follows your blog. As Richard D said: “keep it cool”.

      • avatar Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

        Thanks James. I do work hard to make images that make me happy. As for critiquing, at BPN we strive for “honest critiques done gently.” It is a tremendous place to learn. Andrew’s comments were not at all “done gently. “Did Andrew’s comment and my response ruin everything? I am not sure on that as I am feeling great and enjoying learning and improving.

        with love, artie

    • avatar David Policansky

      Good afternoon, Artie. One reason I’ve stopped posting images on some forums is because people find things to criticize that don’t seem relevant to me. That’s not to say that some comments haven’t led me to improve specific images, and maybe my photography in general, but I find that I can get ideas of how to improve my images by looking at others’–yours included!–and deciding for myself where mine fall short. Also sharing my images for critiques with a smaller group of people I know is helpful. Now, having said that, I find Andrew’s comment unhelpful because he didn’t say your image wasn’t sharp or indeed what is wrong with the image other than it looked plastic and over-processed to him. I would have asked him specifically if he thought it wasn’t sharp and what he based his judgment on, if I’d bothered to respond at all. I enjoyed your draft response to Andrew but I don’t think it would have led to insight either on his part or yours. With love, David

      • avatar Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

        Thanks David. See my comments on BPN and critiquing above in my response to James Saxon.

        I actually went back and responded to his original comment and his response. I am pretty sure that my first instinct was correct: delete his comment and forget about it.

        Some would say that I would be violating his freedom of speech however as I have said here often, this is my house and if you walk in with mud on your shoes you will be asked to leave. Andrew’s original comment was simply nasty.

        As you know as a regular visitor, I am fine with folks disagreeing with me and/or not liking an image that I like. I do insist, however, that such issues be dealt with politely, without malice, and without an agenda. My bad on responding at all.

        with love, artie

    • avatar Richard D

      Arthur, I am a little bit disappointed to be honest. I can’t believe that this guy rocked your self-esteem and self-confidence that much with some critique… He wasn’t even being rude. You should have just ignored it. But no, you chose to seek support on a forum, from a bunch of semi-strangers. Then you deleted his remark and came up with this whole blog post about the poor guy. You acted like a 10year old on a rant on some computer games forum… Sorry but this is how it looks from the outside. Wish you all the best and keep it cool, don’t get so mad about small things in life. Best, Richard