Puffer your a walking contradiction.
Puffers quotes in colour:
Odd, because there are no fish living in the Northern gulf that I do not have clear, infocus images of, with a point and shoot. And as several places that use my images have noted, some of them they cannot find any slr images of.You have images of every living fish in the Northern Gulf, even some that dont have any SLR images of. That has to be unique in anyones book.
Art truly is in the eye of the beholder... so one persons communication may not ever reach anyone....
Keeping in mind that my "art" may or may not mean anything to you, but two of the following images are craft images, and two are art images
But all I have seen in your images is some nice craft work
Here you show that you can provide art images (sorry I just see some happy snaps) but when it comes to other peoples images.................well just some nice craft work. I call that an Art Critic and a Contradiction in what your trying to say.
My point was about people that make judgements about others gear and technics
To quote some of Puffer's Judgements about others gear/Techniques in previous thread showing more Contradictions:
10 years ago, there were no good point and shoot camera's, so everything you stated was true, but that has not been the case for several years now...and even after lots of testing, thousands of examples, the SLR crowd is still living in what they want to be true over what is true.
Regarding image quality, you need to take a class in optics
But use a middle priced SLR, and the story is very different. Say one has a D300 (nice camera, but not the best sensor)....it would only be as good as the best point and shoot up to around F11-F16, and would be worse above that.
But for reasons I don't really understand, DSLR users seem to have to make their camera's better and bigger and more impressive than they really are.
I like black background images also, but they tend to be over done by Dslr users, where every image is one, or images like your manta's, where one does a "photo technic" of having the sun behind the fish.
To quote you from above
But if you have to see some other image, before you evaluate the one in front of you, you are missing the point.
Referring to your comment "I guess it is too much to ask, but I wish that anyone using a camera do some homework, learn a bit about the technology and it's good and bad points and actually compare identical images, and then make judgements." Isnt that another Contradiction.
Puffer, I too like to comment on images that are pleasing to my eye. Unfortunately I can't on your examples so far.
What is the story with the name dropping? You have told many times that you where a Student of Minor White's......... does this reflect in any of your examples (easpecially underwater).......? You might have been a student but did you pass the class?
My repeated posts about "Arm chair Experts" is directed straight at you. You have waffled on with genuine bias towards point and shoot cameras and how technically sound they are compared a DSLR. You stated that you have classes in photography, that you sell your images and even that you have taken a photo of every living fish in the Northern Gulf (do you know them all by name) and that you have studied under a famous photographer.
To quote your own comment "But keep this in mind, for every real photographer out there, you can expect to hear from 10 Elvis painters... they tend to be loud, and are convinced that equipment makes the photographer". From my experience a real photographer is taking photo's and displaying them to be seen by anyone and everyone. Not sitting infront of text book or monitor talking about other peoples work and to afraid display their own images as they may be criticised.
Techincally knowing and Techincally doing are two completely different things.
The whole point of photography is taking a image from that moment in time and sharing it with others. If your not sharing that image what was the point of taking it in the first place.
Below is my link to my flickr as I like to share my photo's to who ever wants to look at them. You can Criticise or comment if you like. You may find some that are pleasing to your eye and maybe even call Art. The fact is I display my photos and I am not afraid to do so. When I talk about photography I always try and provide examples of my own work either good or bad to inform others.
As the story goes a picture is worth a thousand words.
Regards Mark