![/QUOTE]This one sure got 'off message'... Can we get back to the original question? It's a good one.![/QUOTE]

I agree totally, and was about to suggest that as well.

![/QUOTE]
I don't think photos in general need to "say something" except to the person taking the picture--it was a point in time that was important enough to click the shutter (and probably do some editing in Photoshop).![/QUOTE]

Actually what you are talking about is picture taking as I defined it earlier. You take a picture for your own purposes, put it in an album, for example and take a look at it from time to time.

To use another analogy, story telling may have a limited relevance, limited interest and limited appeal depending on the individual nature of the story. It may only be a diary or a journal. Literature is defined as a work with a more universal appeal to a larger audience.

Photography can be equally defined as picture taking with a more "universal appeal". However to get that attention and that "universal appeal", certain techniques that mix the artistic with the technical are required.

It is not only posting pictures on a site, it is also publishing in a paper, folder, magazine,presenting, entering a competition and selling your work. To do all of this successfully, the photograph must have a universal appeal and must communicate something about the photographer and his/her point of view of the scene or subject being photographed.

Thank you, by the way, for bringing things back to the appropriate topic.

Ronnoco