Small rant...

[johno]

Directed at posters in any of the photography groups...

Out of focus pictures are NOT automatically art.

Take a picture of your cat, dog, little sister, a mountain, a tree, a car, etc, etc, and it looks blurry???

Throw it away! Delete it, if digital!

Don't foist it on the viewing public and ask for commentary.
(I won't even go down the "and be nice" clause...)

Because the first comment will be "learn how the focus works on your camera"

{/rant}

Notes:

If you WANT it to out focus and it looks good, then it's ART.
If you got a cool effect, then it's found ART.

Posting a blurry pic and asking "why it's out of focus" is a valid question.

Comments

[manifestress.livejournal.com]

Another reason why we love ya!

[sinboy.livejournal.com]

Digital cameras are < shudder > autofocus.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Being a good craftsman will in no way prevent you from becoming a genius. -Renoir

[bovil.livejournal.com]

the "and be nice" clause...

Oh, it's a "happy fluffy bunny reviewer" group.

Face it, lots of people don't want commentary. They want the happy fluffy bunnies to come up and tell them how nice they are. Iv'e a few friends who left fanfic lists because whenever they made a negative comment or offered constructive criticism the happy fluffy bunnies descended on them with sharp pointy teeth.

I can offer two suggestions:

If it's a community or group you moderate: Ban "and be nice," "positive comments only" and other such clauses. Put in the group description that when asking for comments one must be ready to expect criticism. In the case of LJ, screening posts would still be acceptable, because the entry author would still see the responses.

If it's a community that you don't moderate: I checked. happyfluffy doesn't exist. Register it. Use this ID to join those communities. Use it to incompetently gush about everything wrong with a picture that says "and be nice." Be the teenager who can't spell, capitalize or punctuate. Make people learn to dread happyfluffy's nice comments.

[usqueba.livejournal.com]

I have a camera for my Visor. I was still not sure how it worked (What user's manual?! ::G::) so I was trying different things. I have a blurry, grainy picture of my cat a la bogus Bigfoot pics. It's terribly funny (imo).

AAAAH! It's Smallcat!

On the other hand...

[smallship1.livejournal.com]

...if you can't frame even constructive criticism in an inoffensive way, go learn to write.

We've all seen the kind of sad, twisted geek who uses the Internet as a way to make itself feel superior by tearing chunks out of anyone who dares to put their efforts at creativity up for consideration. I'm sure no-one here is of that type...but they are the reason why comments such as "and be nice" are put up.

[succ33d.livejournal.com]

I hope you weren't referring to my pictures because yes, I know they are blurry. I have a webcam and it is hard to focus it when I am trying to take a picture away from my desk. I have to put it on a timer. And if I move at all when the timer goes off, it gets blurry.