What makes a great photography?

[dneves]

What do you value more on a photo?

Is it the graphic aspect (The "Ahhh" effect), the message transmitted by the photo, the difficulty of making the photo (Ex.: a photo of a rare animal on a country with a civil war going), the name of who took it, ....?

It really troubles me when viewers simply ignore an hard-to-get, technically perfect photo and think that a taken-with-a-cell-phone, didn't-really-wanted-to-do-that photo is the best...

I would really like to hear your opinion/experience on this

Look at this one, it's not that great, but it will serve as an example[/url]

[url]http://www.pbase.com/dneves/image/39091224 (http://i2.pbase.com/u16/dneves/medium/39091224.28.jpg)

It was taken after walking a couple of kilometers into burnt ground, it depicts a carbonized tree still standing that appears to be screaming, while in contrast, the new grass that was already growing sorrunds it like flames, not of fire, but of regeneration.
It was taken after major forest fires a couple of years ago, you an have an idea of it's magnitude by looking at this satellite images

http://earth.esa.int/ew/fires/portugal_aug_03/_images/po_030805_131211_bg.jpg

http://earth.esa.int/ew/fires/portugal_aug_03/fi_portugal_03.htm

Would you have given it any credit before you knew this?
Do you give it any credit knowing the context?
Do you find important giving meaning to a photo, trying to "decode" it while viewing or do you simply like to look at it if it pleases the eyes?

Ideally, photos should be perfect in all aspects, but has this is impossible to attain, what is your priority while shooting?

Thanks in advance

[iwatkins]

pbase link isn't working.

[jaypie77]

I like pretty pictures.

Having said that, giving a photo artistic importance with a story or title sometimes improves a good photo, however, bad photos can not be improved.

[dneves]

I'm very sorry about the link, hope this works

http://www.pbase.com/dneves/image/39091224

I also made a mistake on the title, tryed to correct it, but it didn't work... Sorry again....

[Speedie]

Well I decided I liked the image before reading further and discovering the context. I like the contrast between the charred tree and the soft colours surrounding it, and the hole in the tree adds interest. It's always interesting knowing the story behind a photo, but for me knowing about the devastating fire didn't make me judge the photo any differently - I didn't think it was a better photo because of the context.

[René Damkot]

I like a picture to have an "Ahhh effect" (Nice description!)
Doesn't matter who took it where, under what circumstances and how. Apart from that an image can have an added value, like newspictures for instance.
So, indeed, this one isn't great...