Good photography you say !

Well firstly a photograph is a record of a moment in time - this can be documentary in style or something much less tangible. So in the most basic form it is a good photograph if it has recorded that moment in a way that can be seen later. However most people aspire to something much higher than this in reality, so the question of quality becomes dependant upon if it is portraying that which the photographer intended to portray.

In this thread 'quality' and 'interesting' seems to be intertwined whereas that is not necessarily so.

I'll pick on Geert and hope you don't mind :) you initiated the thread so it seems the fairest way to illustrate my opinion on these images, not on you, or anyone else as a photographer, or a person.

The quality of both images posted is good.

The first one is interesting to me because the light is showing me different textures and contrasts, I find this visually exciting, look and linger on the image for a while to see what it is all about. The composition is captivating, in a very classic style where the main features are placed on thirds with the golden mean principle at its heart. On the right hand side there are diagonal shadows which lead into the rest of the image, they also imply going the other way a window with a fine curtain where the main light is coming from so leave much to think about there. The harsh vertical line could be a big no no but I think this image has got away with it because just beyond it is the highest contrast area of the image so it manages to drag the eye around the corner. (My personal choice would have been to move this line over a bit in the composition so it wasn't quite so near the centre line.) The image as whole seems to be showing me life sheltering away from a harsh sun in a cool shady place till the heat is not so fierce. I could go on & on but you get the idea.

The second image of the cows is of the same quality but for me doesn't have the same interest value. The scene is essentially of low contrast mid tones which do not grab my attention, it is not very visually captivating, the composition of 4 cows is taken in with one glance and has little to keep me with the image to explore it further. As something to say it remains silent compared to your first posting. If I take it on a documentary level it doesn't have much to say either. It shows me vary angles of this breed of cattle ( they are heifers not cows ). I can see they are a meat breed, but there is nothing to indicate which breed they are, and nothing to show a particular point of their conformation. There is a little bit of rim lighting which could be interesting, but the photograph is not emphasising that or using it in anyway leading me to believe the photographer has just taken a snap of some cattle in a field and doesn't have much to say about them, the moment, or their surroundings.

Just my 1/2p worth.

 

And every one said, 'If we only live,
We too will go to sea in a Sieve,---
To the hills of the Chankly Bore!'
Far and few, far and few, Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue, And they went to sea in a Sieve.

Edward Lear
http://www.nonsenselit.org/Lear/ns/jumblies.html