Several weeks ago, I was talking with an extremely experienced and accomplished practitioner of our craft. I made the statement above that every image has value. He was very dismissive of that and said that when people don't spend "enough time" on an image, it has no value.
I think this attitude is counterproductive to our cause and is related to other things I've seen on Astrobin where, on a few occasions, people have been hypercritical of images that have received recognition. When delivered in a hyperbolic or inappropriate way, these criticisms come off as petty jealousies. Contests like IOTD are bound to engender some of that. It's human nature. Truly constructive criticism can be extremely helpful. But the one thing in all this that definitely has no value is tactlessly insulting someone else's efforts. This subject also came up on the Masters of PixInsight forum, so I'm going to borrow from what I said there.
My whole take on this starts with the fact that astrophotography is not cheap--not in money, not in time, and not in dedication. It's a very expensive way to spend those treasures. And in the grand scheme of things, it's also very rare.
If you're young, and you manage to scrape together a few thousand dollars to buy some gear, and then you devote enough time to it to produce an image, that's pretty special. And you're building a skill and entering an avocation that can serve you well for the rest of your life. That's incredible!
If you're old, and have worked for a lifetime to be able to afford this hobby and you go after it, that's pretty special, too. If you're like me, and you want to build some kind of legacy that may have a chance of living on after you, it's an opportunity to try to make that happen. Also incredible!
If you're of any age and you spend hours upon hours tinkering with hardware made by a dozen different manufacturers and you actually get it to work, holy shit--that's amazing! And if you spend hours upon hours outside freezing your globular clusters off, or serving as a happy meal for the most dangerous creatures on earth (that is, mosquitos), then you're showing something special.
If you figure out how to fully automate a rig, you cart it to some far-off place, you make it work night after night, and you go back there again and again to fix stuff that breaks, you've done something special.
No matter how you slice it, getting a recognizable picture of something beyond low earth orbit (or hell, even something in low earth orbit), is something that in all of human history, only a handful of people have been able to do. If you don't think that has some intrinsic value, you need catch a ride to Denver and get some gummies.
Astrophotography gives the world a dose of reality in a fascinating, engaging way. And if there's something this world needs, it's a dose of reality. So the more people doing this, the better. We stand on very tall shoulders--the scientists, engineers, creative people, and even business people who made all this possible. Our work proves, time after time, image after image, that science works, that the reality it expresses is true, and that we can reach it if we try.
So be kind. Be thoughtful. There is beauty in every image. It may not always come through in the pixels. But it's there in the beating heart of the fellow human who created it.
I think this attitude is counterproductive to our cause and is related to other things I've seen on Astrobin where, on a few occasions, people have been hypercritical of images that have received recognition. When delivered in a hyperbolic or inappropriate way, these criticisms come off as petty jealousies. Contests like IOTD are bound to engender some of that. It's human nature. Truly constructive criticism can be extremely helpful. But the one thing in all this that definitely has no value is tactlessly insulting someone else's efforts. This subject also came up on the Masters of PixInsight forum, so I'm going to borrow from what I said there.
My whole take on this starts with the fact that astrophotography is not cheap--not in money, not in time, and not in dedication. It's a very expensive way to spend those treasures. And in the grand scheme of things, it's also very rare.
If you're young, and you manage to scrape together a few thousand dollars to buy some gear, and then you devote enough time to it to produce an image, that's pretty special. And you're building a skill and entering an avocation that can serve you well for the rest of your life. That's incredible!
If you're old, and have worked for a lifetime to be able to afford this hobby and you go after it, that's pretty special, too. If you're like me, and you want to build some kind of legacy that may have a chance of living on after you, it's an opportunity to try to make that happen. Also incredible!
If you're of any age and you spend hours upon hours tinkering with hardware made by a dozen different manufacturers and you actually get it to work, holy shit--that's amazing! And if you spend hours upon hours outside freezing your globular clusters off, or serving as a happy meal for the most dangerous creatures on earth (that is, mosquitos), then you're showing something special.
If you figure out how to fully automate a rig, you cart it to some far-off place, you make it work night after night, and you go back there again and again to fix stuff that breaks, you've done something special.
No matter how you slice it, getting a recognizable picture of something beyond low earth orbit (or hell, even something in low earth orbit), is something that in all of human history, only a handful of people have been able to do. If you don't think that has some intrinsic value, you need catch a ride to Denver and get some gummies.
Astrophotography gives the world a dose of reality in a fascinating, engaging way. And if there's something this world needs, it's a dose of reality. So the more people doing this, the better. We stand on very tall shoulders--the scientists, engineers, creative people, and even business people who made all this possible. Our work proves, time after time, image after image, that science works, that the reality it expresses is true, and that we can reach it if we try.
So be kind. Be thoughtful. There is beauty in every image. It may not always come through in the pixels. But it's there in the beating heart of the fellow human who created it.
