sure. go ahead. paint a giant mosquito there

What are they going to paint on the blank white wall to the right? Maybe this is just the beginning.

facto, that is one great avatar. I have no idea what the rest of it will be. probably some kind of advert...but who would use a mosquito? I'll watch that space.

okay, which one of you fools is messing with me? I'll start asking why things are highlighted and we'll all have to go back to the forum...

what are you on about? this is great. i was only remarking to myself this morning over a croissant that you have a style i can easily spot from the homepage. i like it.

Nige, it worries far more that you are talking to yourself, or the croissant. but thanks.

haha

what are your thoughts, harry?

harry, being someone who has asked the very same question, you are a man after my heart. bravery and honesty do us all good. so why was this hlted? who knows? I wish I could give you the answer. HLs are no measure of a photographer. personally, I liked my rock balancer guy better. HLs come from real people and they are individual, idiocyncratic, and mysterious. know you are one of our finest photographers and HLs have nothing to do with what matters. You and I both have photos that deserved a HL and never saw the light of day. so when the weird HL comes along, I accept it for all those little guys who I would have HLted.

I struggle myself to make sense of some HLs. We have preferences, ideas and HLs don't always make sense. I try to understand, to make my eyes see what the mod saw. And it doesn't always work. But I try. Understanding how we see the world, how others see it, is something photography and this blog is about. Just like family, there are some things you never understand.

To be your age with your eyes, and skills? hey, you're going to leave us in the dust. can't wait.

Heh, it's not something that you tend to see. I think this is a content picture, rather than quality. It's interesting. They're doing something different.

thank you helen.. it has been a source of concern. content over style. okay. working on it.

Maybe there's a deeper message in it all...

agree with Helen.

Harry, come in! come in Harry! we want to hear from you.

you are a very good photographer, no doubt, but saying that "there have been loads of mine that should have been HL" is a bit assumptive, don't you think? there are lots of good photographers on moblog, who post superb photos that go unhighlighted, but different mods have different criteria for highlighting an image. i don't really see why highlighting is still a contentious issue. there's always someone who is going to get pissed with decisions that are made, but put yourself in the shoes of the person who has to make that decision. it's got to be tough.

for me, i like the image, because it's funny to see these two guys painting something of this nature and magnitude on a wall, when this type of work is usually reserved for grafitti artists. i also like the white wall..just because I like white painted things...go figure.

but i don't think that anyone has a "right" to be featured.

Yes but, no but,... yes,...

Nige, I think it's a bit unfair to ask for Hward's view then call him presumptious (or assumptive? not quite sure what that means) for expressing it. Seems like a bit of a trap.

I like the content of this photo and personally I prefer content over style - so no complaints there.

Again personally, I think that the highlighters do sometimes fetishize some photographers and subjects - not sure if that's why Swamprose is uncomfortable.

But back to the photo.....I hope that the legend "Titan" on that wall is referring to the mosquito. That'd be one hell of a bite!

perhaps i should have better explained. the only part of what Harry has written that i disagree with was what i quoted. however, i'm not attempting to trap him by calling him on that point. the rest of what he has written i think pretty much nails what a highlight is for me.

what i am saying is that IMO it is fundamentally wrong for a person to think that they should be highlighted because they take good pictures. sure, it's always nice to be featured, but it would be very difficult for the mods to do it with the amount of good photography that is on this site. in addition, there's no accounting for taste between what is deemed h/l worthy and what isn't.

i also called Harry on it because he has raised the same question a number of times on other highlights, and he's never been answered, probably because he has never elaborated beyond his initial comment of "I would like to know why this was highlighted...".

you were right though. i did mean "presumptuous", and not assumptive. hehe.

It's only taken me and Nige three attempts to get to the commonly accepted spelling of "presumptuous". Go us! (I actually checked the OED and my spelling is in use as an alternate, erm phew).

Very pedantic I know. But then somehow that doesn't seem out of place.

I also agree that Moblog should be about telling stories in photos. Can we all hold hands and watch a puppet show now please?

oh go on then.

and i'll let you off for the spelling ;)

:D

I must have strange Elizabethan leanings as I keep coming up with archaic spellings.

See Teazle, who should really be called Teasel.

Sorry Swamprose. Dragging your mosquito photo comments off topic...

haha, nice text swamprose. good explanation of the picture =)

I'm going ot have to agree with Swamprose. I don't understand why the HL. Sure it tells a story, but I wouldn't think it's a good enough story for a HL.

I know what Harry's on about. It's not about saying he should be HLed, but knowing that in your heart that the image you've taken is good enough to be a HL. Then when it gets completely missed it's a little heartbreaking. It makes some of the HLs seem confusing.

I am curious why they're painting a mosquito on the wall though.

Heh. I'd be downright annoyed and pissy if I saw something like that going up around here. You must have missed the 8,000 times or so I have bitched and moaned about the mosquito horde from hell lately. It's better now, at least dozens of them don't swarm you immediately, but I'm still bit half to death.

Sorry you're suffering the same.

facto, i like your idea alot. "peoples choice". that is a winner.

Kos & Harry, i think i understand you more clearly now.

Facto that's be great. Also it'd be a good way to find stuff that we editors miss. I wish I could HL all the kool stuff, but I jsut don't always see it.

.

Good suggestion Factotum. It sounds similar to one that's already been made in the interminable highlight debate - but I might just be getting highlight-debate-exhaustion-deja-vu.

Only drawback I can see is that it would be open to abuse by people voting for their friends' pictures.

It's quite possible that there's been a similar suggestion; as I said, I haven't really been involved in the interminable debate.

HL debate ?

For me Toddys sidebar sums it all up.

Hope you dont mind Toddy