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I am not a particularly religious person but I spend far more time in churches than the average self confessed christian because I am interested in both photographing them and the history. I have recently uploaded pictures of various church interior statues etc, the one I currently have on has received 5 votes. Is it the picture which is crap or do people feel uncomfortable with this type of image ? I personally feel far more uncomfortable with some of the very poorly posed, out of focus "Glamour" photographs which appear in the galleries. Talk about mutton dressed as lamb ! I must admit I am beginning to question my membership of EPZ and if I will continue my subscription. I am beginning to think that Waterfalls, Landscapes at dawn and Dawn's landscape are the only pictures here which meet the necessary criteria to succeed.
Martin.
What is success? Do you judge it by how many votes it gets. If so then understand you are chasing the popular vote so had better stick to popular subjects. If you want critical acclaim then think on how much effort you are putting into your shot.
To me your last photo is a well captured record of the artists work. The question is what have you added to the artists work by your photo? To get a vote from me you would have to do something new. For example a friend did a collage of images from a church and came up with a totally new image.
Another used light and relative position to create a new take.
Quote: I am not a particularly religious person but I spend far more time in churches than the average self confessed christian because I am interested in both photographing them and the history. I have recently uploaded pictures of various church interior statues etc, the one I currently have on has received 5 votes. Is it the picture which is crap or do people feel uncomfortable with this type of image ? I personally feel far more uncomfortable with some of the very poorly posed, out of focus "Glamour" photographs which appear in the galleries. Talk about mutton dressed as lamb ! I must admit I am beginning to question my membership of EPZ and if I will continue my subscription. I am beginning to think that Waterfalls, Landscapes at dawn and Dawn's landscape are the only pictures here which meet the necessary criteria to succeed.
You are doing what you enjoy why worry about "browney points" from others, or are you on an ego trip and want others to like your pics? its nice if they do, tough if they do'nt.
Good grief, man. Your images regularly get loads of clicks, you try something new and, lo! your audience just doesn't get it. It's obvious, really.
As for your latest? Well, I've never been comfortable with photographs of artworks. I always ask myself what the photographer is adding to the artwork by photographing it. When the answer I get is 'b*gger all' I yawn and move on. The original subject is not even particularly good art, imo. Perhaps this has something to do with the lack of attention?
If you're after feedback, best thing to do is post stuff in the Critique Gallery now and then, you'll definitely get something useful there.
Also, join in that thread I started where you post 2 different shots - those that joined in have all been adding lots comments to each others shots and it's been a really good tool. Just a bit of fun really, but it's got people thinking about how they use the site - some have gone from serial "nice pic" type commenters to saying what they really think.
Final way is just to have a go at critiqueing other peoples shots in detail. It cuts down on the volume you can cover in a day, so you'd struggle if you're racing round your friends trying to leave a comment on each friend every day, but the response is usually a really nice Thankyou and also you start to see people reciprocating the critique.
I've done church yard stuff which I really liked - more creative lighting makes a bigger impact on here, but i was always disappointed with the response. Its just not picture postcard enough for a lot of people. HDR interiors will reap the rewards though 
I personally love to see the various forms of religious art and buildings around the world. This is one of the great advantages of EPZ over many other sites. There are people from all walks of life and so many countries that seeing the images is a real education. When I see buildings or art work I like to also see a comment as to where they were taken or who created the original. I think your last two images are beautifully photographed, I only wish you gave more information about them. Keep posting the church images, as well as your waterfalls.
You're questioning your membership after only two photos didn't get as many votes as you were used to getting? Gee, you're easily disappointed, aren't you?
I tend to agree with Jools' comments on your shots of the Maria statue. You really can't expect those to do as well as the other photos in your portfolio - and even not as well as other shots of churches, etc.
There are some church interior and exterior shots on EPZ that have done very well in the Gallery - if you like that sort of thing, study those shots and see what you can do to emulate those photographers, or even better: improve on what they've done!
Hi Conrad,
I am not questioning my membership because of these two images ! that would be really daft. I don't have the ego or competetive spirit for that !
The votes are ok but not everything. I was questioning the religous content and if that put people off.
Martin.
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