Narratives on images - worthwhile?

[brianowski]

I really appreciate all of the comments I've received on my most recent
Wave gallery (Return to the Wave...). Thank you for taking the time to visit and share your thoughts! I'm humbled, and thankful.

In the spirit of what Galen Rowell has done in his "Mountain Light" book, I've recently added a narrative to each of the images in this gallery, sharing the thoughts, mechanics, and emotions behind the creation of each image. What I would like to hear is your opinions on whether you find these narratives interesting, distracting, or beneficial in any way to the appreciation of the gallery.

All comments welcome - I value your opinions as fellow artists!

As always, Thank you. Brian

[ang1970]

It's a strange, double-irony. Most people (myself included) need more narrative, because their photos don't convey the complete experience of the photographer to someone without previous knowledge of the subject. With your photos, they are an experience all to themselves, and require no narrative. But to someone such as myself (hack) they are so inspiring that I want to learn more about the process, so the narrative is immensely appreciated.

Short version: No, you don't need the narratives... but please please please keep doing them anyway!

[minoltaman]

Absolutely a worthwhile thing to do. One day I plan to do so on most everything in my galleries. Just don't have the time to do it right just yet.


Cheers

[brianowski]

I appreciate your comments - Indeed, I'll try to augment more of my galleries with narrative descriptions. Actually, I find it quite fun, it really takes me back to the moment and let's me experience, and learn from it again. The next gallery I'm going to tackle will be "Seasons of the Canyon"...

Cheers!

Brian

[minoltaman]

Hey Brian....Fun maybe...but not so fun when you are staring 5k images in the face that need some text. That's not fun...it's time consuming.

Have a good one.

[framewerkz]

Personally, I try to append some narrative to the pictures I post. It provides an insight into what you're thinking/seeing while capturing the image, and might be a good opportunity to explain the reasons behind a particular shot. They might say that a picture is worth a thousand words, but there's no harm in having both I don't have as many pictures as some users here, but find that adding narrative as I upload not as arduous as envisaged... indeed, certain friends viewing my galleries still feel overwhelmed at the volume of images, though even on a single theme, they might appear disjointed in flow to someone who wasn't there at the time of the photography.

My two cents.