Crushed

Marian, I am sorry.  Are you talking about the one that's in the featured gallery here?  If that's the case then you know we like it

I am more likely to worry about what people here think, because I consider everyone here experts, but honestly I need it, my friends, family and clients all think I rock (they are clueless). 

But yeah, sometimes it hurts.  I don't think there has been one person on this forum that hasn't been hurt or upset by something at least once.

With your situation Marian you need to develop an attitude that you are going to succede in spite of everything.  Your son probably innocently said what he did.  I was reading a parenting article (long before I was even married, ironically) and it was talking about this exact same thing.  It said that when your children first start to draw that their artwork won't look like much to you, but to them it represents something.  When they show it to you then you are supposed to say "wow, that's great, tell me about it" instead of "nice, what is it?".  And yes, us adults need the same careful treatment sometimes. 

Based on where his head is at, interested in Norse fighters, why would you think he would like it? an English knight covered in texture of an old tree? (If you remember I didn't like it either)

Did you show him any of your ideas for the photo shoot? I would expect him to love those.  But then again, his age is hard to figure out and you know if everyone likes something, no matter what it is, a bunch of them are lying.

I see one of my prints hanging in a gallery next to the most godawful flower photo in the world, too much saturation the color is off just terrible. Then I'm in there one day and a lady walks by my photo and stands and raves about that stupid flower for a few minutes, didn't buy it (that would have hurt). Later I get an email from a lady wanting to know about unframed copy of my print, she loves it just can't afford that much for it. Some you win some you don't

It still hurts when family doesn't agree with your passion. But you've got to remember even Jesus' family didn't like his being a preacher. So if the most influential person to ever live had problems convincing his family his chosen vocation was the right one the rest of us don't have much of a chance..

My uncle recently showed some photos they had had taken. My mom asked why he hadn't asked me. His reply was "We wanted professional photos"

*hugs*

Fantastic!!
Family is great!
Now you know why you get to actually choose your friends.

Everyone close to me thinks Im a better photographer than I do.
Want to open up my can of worms? 
Can you say confidence issues?!

Marian, that knight photo is cool. Few people will like it. Honestly, I dont 'like' it. But I seriously appreciate that artistry involved in creating it, and I think its cool.

Corey

Bob, consider youself lucky.  I hate doing work for family.  I am usually underpaid and underappreciated.  At least with my husband's family.  They are photographers as well, so they can always do it better, yet they don't bother trying...
Talk about a can of worms

Marian, I hope you are feeling better, it's been another day.  I usually feel better the next day.

OMG, ouch!!!! 

After 26 years in this business I have come to the following conclusions:

One person may see something as a beautiful work of art, another may see it as worthless trash! 

Artists must have thick skin.

Listen to the experts, disregard the idiots.

After you evaluate another's work, ALWAYS say to yourself, "on the other hand....."

Benji