Anonymous asked: "Property of Captain Steve Rogers. Comic-Con. San Diego. 2011. Marvel Pavilion: S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier Storage Chamber." Respectfully, you have to know this already, this isn't even a good photo. it's all glare and meaningless reflection off of the glass. personally I'd rather wait for one of your usual great shots than for you to clog our feeds with poor pics. keep up the good work. - a fan

Dear Anonymous…

I’ve given this response a lot of thought. This isn’t something I normally do.. Post comments and stuff… I guess, in the end, though, it was your desire for me to strive for an Expected Level of Presumed Excellence that has prompted me to respond to your seriously expressed observations.

I mean, for the most part, your note about my photograph is a very nice compliment.. You seem to like my pictures and are expressing a heartfelt critique of one of my images. It’s kinda cool, actually…

But I guess that’s the deal ya’ kinda make, when you put out a work of art and somebody decides to look at it. Gotta be able to take the good with the bad or I should really just keep the art to myself. I mean, In essence, I asked for this.

so. Having said that.  

I sign each of my images. I’ll sign this message, as well… You should consider signing all messages. There’s nothing to be timid about. I’m just posting pics of silly comic book stuff. All is well. You spoke your opinion well. Expressed yourself clearly. You should therefore be proud to sign your work, even if its just a tumblr name or email address or whatever. It adds balls to the affair. Gives it more weight. No harm done. Just sayin’…..  

Next… I must respectfully disagree with you. I do not think the picture in question is a bad picture. It isn’t my best. That goes without saying. Its not even in the top 2000. We agree completely on this matter. However, it is exactly the photo I wanted it to be. And it is exactly where I wanted it to be posted. I am attempting to capture moments. Moments in time from Comic Book Conventions. True…True… I kinda hope that the pics I take are different than other people’s, or at least as interesting as others out there… And I always hope that people like them…So, yes, I will admit to striving for above average pics.  But.. In the end, I have to be the final judge of what I wanna post. My names on the damn thing. and…   Unfortunately..   Sometimes..  Those moments I try to capture and then post just don’t look as good as some of the others and there’s just not much I can do about it. Lighting sucks. Positions no good. Not quick enough. Sometimes my fault. Sometimes not.  

Now.. As far as the Captain America pics go… There was a constant gathering of dozens and dozens of people in front of that thing. It took me forever to get to the front of the crowd. Once I did get in front, I took a few pics.. then backed off.. When it seemed like the right time, I got right up against the glass and started shooting again. That’s the only way you can really avoid the glare stuff (I’ve posted one or two of those already as I’m sure you know). Around 30 people or so pretty quickly started yelling at me to back off (one girl in particular seemed to think i was a total idiot. I didn’t argue with her). I took my pics, and got the hell out of there as quick as I could once I figured I had the shots I was looking for… Going back to check right now, the entire shoot lasted about 2 or 3 minutes. I took 16 pictures. Around half of them are any good. The rest are crap.  

The picture you don’t like captures that moment. I know it’s not the best picture of Captain America’s uniform.. but that’s not the point of the pic.. The glare reminds me (and anybody else who was there or wonders what it was like being there) of being in front of the Marvel Pavilion at a very particular time… Of the surprise of walking by and seeing a huge friggin’  S.H.I.E.L.D. Storge Chamber display with Captain America’s friggin’ Uniform inside from a movie that’s still being filmed. So…yeah..  In the pic I posted, I can see those people gathered around…  I can see the glare of the storage unit…. the yellow glow of the lights inside…  So… actually.. I think I captured that moment fairly well:  

Chaos. Mob Mentality. Cool Captain Ameirca stuff behind glass.  

As far as clogging your feed with poor pics.. well…. That was surely not my intention. It’s honestly never my intention. I will admit, I wasn’t aware that one pic could induce such severe cloggyness, but life is full of suprises. It is never my intention to post bad pics, but I guess the hard truth is that we all have a different opinion of what a bad pic is… I should explain, I post the images on my site assuming that people actually go to the site and look at them in the order that I’ve posted them in, as opposed to seeing them on their tumblr dashboard feed mixed in with everybody else (which of course I do, too.. so.. I’m living in a hopeless dream world, I admit). Believe it or not, there is a rhyme and a reason to what I post and when I post them.

There is a method to my madness.

Oh… speaking of that….. You should be forewarned.. The next 4 pics I’m posting are more behind the glary glass pics. All Dark Knight displays from the DC Pavilion. Pics of the suits and outfits worn in the movie… Those are followed by a picture of The Joker frowning, followed by The Hulk frowning.. etc…. see?… One pic leads into the next in some way or another… So.. If you look at them in order on my site, the Cosplay Joker pic will lead into the Dark Knight Joker’s mask from the bank robbery, which will lead into the behind the glass uniform Batman pics, which will lead into the behind the glass Cap pic you don’t care for, which leads into Cosplay girl dressed as Cap pic, which leads into…etc.. etc.. etc….  

And I’ve done that pretty much with 2,140 pictures.   

So.. you see… I was actually kinda stuck with it. The “Property of Captain Steve Rogers” pic… They are all like links in a chain, so to speak.. Like a comic book convention… One booth next to another.. One pic leads to another… etc….

So… Anyway… That’s all I really wanted to say… thank you for taking the time to speak your mind…. as I mentioned in the beginning of this note and in all honesty would like to make clear.. … Thank you again for your kind compliment and passionate critique…  

I wish I had more fans like you.  

Michael Vincent Partsch    

p.s.  go screw yourself.          just kiddin’.  

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