In this day and age, most of us take lightly how powerful the internet is. We post status updates to Facebook, tweet all day long, and display our cherished photos quite literally for the world to see. It’s easy to fall into a trap and expose your entire life online without thinking twice. I’ll leave the status updates for another time, but I want to discuss the act of posting image after image on a blog or photo sharing web site. This article isn’t meant to be a guide on when to post and what to post. Rather, I want to get as many people out there to stop and think about the process of selectively (or not so selectively) posting images.

We are our biggest critics – I may have taken three photographs I completely and unconditionally love in my life, if that. It’s human nature to be harder on ourselves than other people. The problem with working on your own image is that you spend a good deal of time analyzing it and looking for mistakes you may have to correct. You were also there when the shutter was pressed so it’s easy to say, “If I just waited 5 more minutes the light would have been that much better!” The thing is this: no one else knows that. Viewers look at your image for what it is, not what it could or should have been. It’s much easier for outsiders to appreciate a photograph by you than it is for you to do the same. What I’m trying to have you think about is that you may have taken a lot more worthy photographs than you think. Don’t be afraid to post a shot you may be unsure of. Constructive feedback and criticism is the best way to grow in this field and you just never know when someone out there could love the image so much they want it on their wall. Read More→