<rant>

i'm sorry in advance for this post, but probably will hit the "post" button in the end anyway.

now, who came up with all this "themes" nonsense? it's really just like kids playing around.

"i have some pictures of a sunset."
"oh, i have some, too!"
"cool. let's set up a sunset theme and post them all together."
"oh, and i have a nice picture of a horse, too!"
"sooo nice! let's have a horse theme next week!"

BOOOORING, BOOORING!

duck theme, book theme, caturday, peng che flowers, MORE FLOWERS EVERYWHERE, car theme, woman with car theme, duck with car but not yet overrun theme... PLEASE! - it looks like everyone is gone crazy about showing the other he/she has once pictures the same thing, too!

now, i understand people's needs for competition and comparison... but really, can y'all please come down from that tree and just post more pictures FOR THE PICTURES SAKE?

i think they deserve that kind of respect...

</rant>

I love themes and learn a lot from them. They give me the push to branch out of my comfort zone. They get me thinking.... I like to take my shots b4 I look at anyone else's. I'm always surprised to see the different and artistic perspectives. It has nothing to do with comparison or competition.. For me it has to do with getting out of my comfort zone and learning.

Sorry you are pissed. I choose to learn and grow from it as a photographer.

caturday is not a theme. caturday is a sacred trust, an act of worship, a tribute. I think you must be deeply confused.

Now I'm going to duck, because I don't want to get hit by the storm that is heading your way, Eidea. You theme-disturber, you!

Well dang I must be a KID!! Caturday is a Theme? Really? Would it be better if there was a Dogturday?

Now I love dogs, but I would have to draw the line at Dogturday...

mystic, caturday takes place on the 23rd of every month, unless your cat insists another day is more appropriate.

Every dog must have it's day. I personally celebrate Fido Fridays, or Fiday, or TGIFiday on the first friday of every month. If I had a dog, I'd post pictures of him every Fiday. but I don't think that idea has caught on here.

awww... always the same girls making fun out of my pain! ;-)

just turn the knife deep in my wound! go ahead! have your caturday, fiday, fishnesday and theme-my-a$$-day all over this photoblog... i'm just gonna add one more category of pictures to the ignore list.

even if your cat pics are the most cuddely-duddely-ready-to-be-stolen pieces of work i'll ever miss.

where's the photographers that REALLY have something to say (and not construct a theme out of every-day niceties)? where's the reporters of reality, the visionaries, the great artists of technology and spirit? are we all in the final stadium of entertainment cancer?

i know you can do better than worshipping pets.

spend less time sitting on toilet seats when themes are about. Then you won't get pissed off!

geezuz ... someone get the Prozac!!!!!!

"where's the reporters of reality, the visionaries, the great artists of technology and spirit?"

that's it! we need visionary theme day.

Julia, Sorry I was just being a smartass about Caturday, haha I have been taking part in it since it was passed on to me by Lindy Thanks for letting me know about it though

By the way Julia, Thanks for thinking up Catuday

*sigh*

my a$$ hurts from all the prozac already, thank you very much.

besides, i'm not depressed about themes... i'm just pissed with people more caring about some "theme" rather than the quality and originality of their pictures, which i consider a very individual thing. i mean... LOOK at what's delivered for a theme... if you flip through the list, latest after 10 entries there is exactly the same approach to it again.

who cares about this? and the rankings? all the people that write "so nice" and "great pic" into people's blogs and consider that a comment?

*double sigh*

well i can see i'm not getting through with the message here, so off i go for more prozac and a goode olde tennessee whiskey.

So I see .....................A No Comment is the Best Comment? Maybe a little too much whiskey eheh!!

i'm just gonna add one more category of pictures to the ignore list.>>>>>>

THANK GAWD!

lol !

from what I have seen since I have been here ALOT pisses you off.. lmao...



if people enjoy it why can't you let it be.. you don't have to look at them ya know..


oh and if we are kids playing around as you say ..at least we are having FUN!!!I'd rather be a kid anyday ...than be oh so serious all the time.. that is boooooring!!!!!

and just for you I will post flowers everyday after our eventful Caturday ... lol

heck I might even send you some ...

dear artbug,

i'm so glad you are posting flowers every day. thank god you can't post them in MY blog, but hey, if i ever feel like flowers, i know where to find them! now, wouldn't it be nice if you'd be the flower shop of all photoblog? maybe 2 or 3 other flowers shops... and the rest offering a little more variety, just like in a good shopping mall?

but, as it is... the whole damn mall is 90% flower shop and the rest has to squeeze into a tiny booth hidden behind the escalators... if you get my drift. now, don't you feel a bit, hmmm, overwhelmed by competition, when you stand in your flower shop overlooking this ocean of flowers from other people's shops? doesn't it, hmmm, make you feel that you're offering the most common, most ordinary every day stuff in the world? can you still marvel about all the wonderful flowers in your shop, stroll over to your colleagues and tell them how nice theirs are? would it make any sense... that you could distinguish from the meaningless mumble jumble produced by the mall's aircon?

but actually that was not the point of my rant to bash on all the flowers posters. because you're right, i can easily ignore them. i was ranting about the pest of THEMES, which unfortunately have been integrated in photoblog as higher principle. people seem to post everything in "themes" now, as if that would raise the value of their shots, just because someone else on this big planet had the same idea of making a picture about the same thing. of course, they differ. of course, sometimes it's amazing how they differ. but there is sooooo much more interesting about pictures and the world they depict then this... to my humble opinion at least.

thank you for your engagement. and thanks, again, for putting up a lot of very nice pictures that have NO flowers in it.

cheers
michael

p.s. yes you are right... a lot of things piss me off. i am an unhappy, unhappy old man.

The key thing here is that you don't have to post on a theme if you don't want to! Neither are you obliged to look at the pictures. And, if you analyse how many people post on theme topics it is still only a small proportion of the total posts.

The lovely thing about Photoblog is its informality and that fact that people can (and do) post what they like - sometimes pictures, sometimes drawings, sometimes words. No one minds and no one is forced to look at or read anything they do not want to.

I sometimes post on themes - but I don't regard it as mandatory. I sometimes post one picture and masses of text - the next day maybe a few pictures. Who cares! I blog for me - not for others!

I had to come and look at this stirring post! Ah la la!
I must say the same as Eidea here, themes DO piss me off too, they are a bit of a "Being another sheep in the herd" which , as a wannabe-anarchist, is highly disturbing. It's why I like to take the piss out of themes when I can be bothered and post something as an "anti-theme" but that means I am not being very clever and am still supporting the theme thing, by being anti-it!
So well. I think people should post more words! less pictures!!!
And if they insist on posting their art, why not post MORE photos of ugly things and more crap pictures and stop talking about exposure and camera stuff which are sooooo boring! (hey!!!)

What the hell is that all about, this photography stuff ! I mean, a picture is a picture, so what if it's taken with a 1.4 or 1.8 lense at 200!
I say ... Please, don't do a Camera theme... That would be the boringest of all.
And yes, flowers are a bit tedious but after humans, they are one of the most admired things on the planet, by their perfection. So are animals. IN fact, everything is perfection except humans who are just unperfect. Why should we not be perfect?
No more themes!!!
I am up for a ducksday though. I like ducks. Coincoinc.