If you spend much time browsing sites like Facebook, Instagram or Threads, you’ve surely seen some lousy photo captions lately.
There’s a photo captions trend that seems to be gaining popularity on social media these days. Unfortunately, it’s a lousy trend that seems to put laziness ahead of usefulness.
When I follow various photo-centric social media accounts, I tend to prefer those that focus on certain categories. I enjoy looking at different types of architecture. I like photos of nature — from landscapes to flowers to places I’ve never been. Sometimes, I’ll follow an account if it features cityscapes of a handful of cities I like. I’ve always loved Victorian-style homes. And, of course, I’m a big dog lover. The Rough Collie happens to be my favorite breed, but I follow plenty of dog-focused accounts regardless of breed.
But what I’ve noticed lately is a trend in which what could be descriptive photo captions no longer are. Instead of a caption that tells me something useful about the image, I get something ridiculous.
“Great photography.”
“Perfect photo.”
“Wonderful shot.”
The images are generally very well composed. Some look to be the quality you might see in a formal art exhibit. They may well be taken with a smartphone, but most look as if a professional photographer was behind it.
So, in many cases, each may be an example of “great photography” or a “wonderful shot.” A handful, though certainly not all, might even qualify as a “perfect photo.”
But other than a photographer’s poposity, those photo captions tell me absolutely nothing.
What constitutes great photography, after all, like most art, is in the eye of the beholder, right?
A good photo caption should serve an important purpose
Allow me to share a photo I took more than 20 years ago. I’ve posted it elsewhere on this blog in the past. So you may well recognize it:
I could post this to social media with that ridiculous “great photography” caption.
But what would that tell anyone who viewed the image? Absolutely nothing. If I take the time to look at a caption for a photograph like this, I don’t care how “great” the photographer thinks his own work is.
I want to know something about the photo itself. Where is this place? What is this place? Is there a story behind this picture? What brought the photographer to this scene? Hell, tell me what kind of flower that is!
Give me information about the image.
In this case, the photo is of the main conservatory of the Louis Ginter Botanical Gardens in Henrico, Virginia. I took the photo in 2005 when I lived in Richmond. It has an amazing collection of plants and flowers inside. I will confess I don’t know details about the flower in the foreground, but my eye liked how it helped frame the central dome of the facility’s greenhouse.
Is it “great photography”? Well, that’s more up to you, the viewer, than me, the photographer, isn’t it? No matter how much I may like it, if it does nothing for you, did I accomplish anything? (And let’s be realistic: If I didn’t think at least something of the photo, I wouldn’t have posted it, now would I?)
I’ve contemplated leaving a comment like “Beautiful image, but lousy caption” in response to such posts. I haven’t done so yet, but if I see just a few more of those lousy photo captions on the wrong day, I might just do so.
