The audacity!

[Geoff_M]

Rockwell lost all credibility with me when he started writing "reviews" of camera and lenses that he'd never seen or held. They were based purely on manufacturer specs in announcement press releases. But Rockwell knows that people on the web desperately seek out reviews of new products and being the first to "review" a hot new camera body or lens will drive lots of traffic to your site via Google and other search engines. That's a quick way to make your hits go through the roof, but very deceptive.

Then there are all of this loopy comments and advice about things like turn the in-camera saturation all the way up to "improve" the way your photos look.

 

[Experiment_626]

I think Rockwell's site is just plain weird. Some of it -- like the snippet I quoted at the start of the thread -- seems so over-the-top that I cannot imagine it was meant seriously (even though, as I said, the original page includes a link that would certainly allow someone to send the guy money). Things like this read like The Weekly World News. Then there's the "advice" he gives that is just plain bad, in my opinion -- such as his stated disdain for tripods, which he professes to consider obsolete. To a beginner, that could easily come across as serious advice (and for all I know, it might be intended as such). And then there is solid, good advice mixed in with all the silliness. I think you have to be somewhat experienced with photography -- and with reading and interpreting the Rockwellian language -- to determine what is good advice and what is self-parody. And even then, the way he freely switches back and forth between the two (sometimes I think maybe he's not as good a parody artist as he might imagine, because the line is often hard to discern) lowers the usability of his site.

 

[Rental01]

That's solid gold. lol

 

[Rental01]

Weird - I thought I quoted when I posted.

Meh - I was referring to the "Ken Rockwell vs Chuck Norris" quotes.

 

[henryp]

Ken Rockwell visited B&H in New York City, and B&H made a HUGE deal about it. He gets a VIP tour of B&H, and the B&H folks are groveling all around him.

Seriously? My goodness. Ken came to visit and was treated with courtesy and the deference good manners demand of any host. Whatever you may think of Ken, he was our guest and deserved to be treated as such.

 

[Rental01]

Seriously? My goodness. Ken came to visit and was treated with courtesy and the deference good manners demand of any host. Whatever you may think of Ken, he was our guest and deserved to be treated as such.

I look at it this way: As a business, if someone who is highly respected in the community that you serve comes to your location, it would behoove you to treat them with the respect that they have built through their work and reputation. For instance, if I were running a warehouse store for racing parts and well respected drag racer (ex. John Force) came to my store, I'd definitely walk him through the whole operation so that he could see it. Not just because he is famous in the community but because I know that many people would respect his opinion if he were to refer to the visit at a later date.

1) It was the kind thing to do
2) It was the right thing to do given his prestige
3) It's just good businesss

 

[Daisy14'sDH]

It takes know about the guy to understand why it is so funny. Here is a well published parody about the guy:

* Ken Rockwell is the Chuck Norris of photography

* Ken Rockwell's camera has similar settings to ours, except his are: P[erfect] Av[Awesome Priority Tv[Totally Awesome Priority] M[ajestic]

* Ken Rockwell doesn't color correct. He adjusts your world to match his.

* Sure, Ken Rockwell deletes a bad photo or two. Other people call these Pulitzers.

* Ken Rockwell doesn't adjust his DOF, he changes space-time.

* Circle of confusion? You might be confused. Ken Rockwell never is.

* Ken Rockwell doesn't wait for the light when he shoots a landscape - the light waits for him.

* Ken Rockwell never flips his camera in portrait position, he flips the earth

* Ken Rockwell ordered an L-lens from Nikon, and got one.

* Ken Rockwell is the only person to have photographed Jesus; unfortunately he ran out of film and had to use a piece of cloth instead.

* When Ken Rockwell brackets a shot, the three versions of the photo win first place in three different categories

* Before Nikon or Canon releases a camera they go to Ken and they ask him to test them, the best cameras get a Nikon sticker and the less good get a Canon sticker

* Once Ken tested a camera, he said I cant even put Canon on this one,thats how Pentax was born

* Rockwellian policy isn't doublethink - Ken doesn't even need to think once

* Ken Rockwell doesn't use flash ever since the Nagasaki incident.

* Only Ken Rockwell can take pictures of Ken Rockwell; everyone else would just get their film overexposed by the light of his genius

* Ken Rockwell wanted something to distract the lesser photographers, and lo, there were ducks.

* Ken Rockwell is the only one who can take self-portraits of you

* Ken Rockwell's nudes were fully clothed at the time of exposure

* Ken Rockwell once designed a zoom lens. You know it as the Hubble SpaceTelescope.

* When Ken unpacks his CF card, it already has masterpieces on it.

* Rockwell portraits are so lifelike, they have to pay taxes

* On Ken Rockwell's desktop, the Trash Icon is really a link to National Geographic Magazine

* Ken Rockwell spells point-and-shoot "h-a-s-s-e-l-b-l-a-d"

* When Ken Rockwell went digital, National Geographic nearly went out of business because he was no longer physically discarding photos

* For every 10 shots that Ken Rockwell takes, 11 are keepers.

* Ken Rockwell's digital files consist of 0's, 1's AND 2's.

* Ken Rockwell never focus, everything moves into his DoF

* Ken Rockwell's shots are so perfect, Adobe redesigned photoshop for him: all it consists of is a close button.

* The term tripod was coined after his silhouette

* Ken Rockwell never produces awful work, only work too advanced for the viewer

* A certain brand of high-end cameras was named after people noticed the quality was a lot "like a" rockwell

* Ken Rockwell isn't the Chuck Norris of photography; Chuck Norris is the Ken Rockwell of martial arts.

* Ken Rockwell never starts, he continues

I want all of this in my Signature line!!!! I nearly peed myself laughing so hard!!!

 

[Daisy14'sDH]

that's not a parody, it's the bio page he wrote for himself

OMG!!! Thanks I laughed so hard my DW felt compelled to go buy me Depends!!!

 

[Experiment_626]

He has the same statement at the end of his "preview" of the D7000. I'm shocked he hasn't gone back to add it to all his pages.