[jford]

I think I'm echoing Doug's comments. I see two questions here - that of gaining technical skills and that of realizing artistic vision. It is the first issue - creating an image closely reproducing the image in the photographer's mind - that seems to be the primary focus of most discussion here - is the exposure correct, are the colors correct, is the composition strong, etc.

But, IMO, we see that one can achieve technical excellence - creating strongly composed, well exposed, sharply focused, well balanced images of yet another scantily clad female form, with no vision beyond displaying said form. There's a place for that, but for me, that would not itself be enough, that achieving the technical skills is just the beginning. That's why we set tasks for ourselves - projects, like Doug's private work - to grow and explore our visions, once we've gained some skill in realizing those visions.

Interesting issue, IMO. Thanks for starting the discussion.