Opinions on some stupid images?

[mopar_guy]

Just my two cents, one of MY weaknesses in my photography of this sort is that I tend to just compulsively snap away. Also I tend to avoid having people in some of my photos of this sort. If I make a deliberate attempt to correct these "weaknesses" sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, but I usually come away with a different look.

[Galah]

I like #1 best.

[Tim Gray]

This thread is funny and liberating in a sense. Admitting our deepest photographic secrets.

I like #1.

[Donima]

Hi rwboyer; try cropping off the railings and the bottom of #3 to 4+5 proportions and i think you will have a much better image. I don't like to crop usually but sometimes it helps. Don

[keithwms]

These don't really work very well for me, I am afraid. Let me suggest just thinking some more about what it is about them that you find compelling. Is it where the stairs take you? How they interact with the landscape? The angles they present?

[Moopheus]

I think #3 is good--I like the way the three lines trisect the image into different tonal areas. #2 is okay too, but #1 seems a bit too static.

Photographing stairs is okay. Somebody has to do it.

[Leighgion]

Only three? Slacker! Those stairs are not going to photograph themselves!

Seriously, I think #3 is my favorite. No need to justify what you feel like taking pictures of. If you feel like it and have no regrets after, that's all the reason needed.

[dances_w_clouds]

I like #3 it seems more "complete"

[phenix]

I like the stairs, but don’t like the wall, so for me is #1.

As for compulsively shooting the same subject or several subjects, it comes from our unconscious memories, and is usually linked to comfort and security, and less to unsolved issues or conflicts. I also have several subjects like this.

And I also learned (from the writings of the regretted movie director Andrei Tarkovsky) that, if you want to produce emotion in viewers, shooting the objects or scenes that moves you more is the best way to do. Some will love your work, some other won’t, but those loving it will do it deeply. This is because they share similar unconscious memories with you, making your work to resonate profoundly in their souls.

Emotion in this case is only suggested, not directly pictured. There is also another stream, stating that emotions have to be intentionally searched or created in a scene, and than directly pictured or even emphasized, but I don’t resonate with this stream.

[Craig Swensson]

i`m with 3, stairs need to lead somewhere,

Hey it could have been far worse, imagine if you only took pictures of road surfaces