Running off sleep depravity alone is ALWAYS fun. In light of the aforementioned situation I present to you. Coldfire's ranty journal.

Deviantart is the worst place on the internet for photographers. Period, no ifs, buts maybes. If you want good critique? Go somewhere else. If you want to learn how to do something, nope, not here. If you would like to see highly origonal pieces of art, you're in the wrong place. The top fav's for almost all the gallery are so terrible cliche'd it hurts. Given that the main fanbase for dA are 13 - 21 year old anthro drawing, immature "artists"; it's not the right place for a photographer who is serious about his craft to go about improving his/her craft.
In terms of photography, what has dA tought me over the years of lurking and posting? That being mundane and generic is ok, and will make you popular, make you be "internet famous". I digress, my point is this, if photography is your thing, you shouldn't be on dA, hell, you shouldn't be on flickr, you shouldn't be anywhere, you should be getting critique and learning from from the people around you. Photography is a medium in which a individual has the capacity to capture a moment in time in the life of that individual, so why am I seeing the same style of shots by hundreds of people, do you all live similar lives? If not, go out and develop your own damn style, be inspired, shoot what you want to shoot, not how other people want you to, or what will get you the most "pageviews"
A gorgeous model does not make an image. The photographer makes the image, the model contributes at the photographer's discretion.
Admittedly, I fall into this sand trap of shooting what has been shot before, without a unique spin on it and ultimately, the only person I'm cheating is myself.

If I really wanted to play the pageviews game, which I am well aware some artists do, I'd be shooting every single clichéd image under the sun, and if everyone did the same as me in that situation, the galleries would be full of the same, cliche' images.. oh, wait...

What I would like to see, that really, is impossible, is for people to shoot what they want to shoot, because it looks good, because it reflects them, not because they know its well within the "safe zone" with 1,000 garuenteed pageviews. Deviantart, you're a joke of the photographer community, diversify yourself.

To those under appreciated artists out there who continuously trail baize, to the exasperated artists who are doing their own thing and don't get recognized. To the unknown artists out there who are true to their art form and to themselves;

You are my inspiration.