I suppose I'm just tired after nearly five years of being dedicated to this community of certain reoccurring themes; for instance, like reading and responding to fickle and quite frankly inane criticisms that are generally either directly representative of ignorance, inexperience, and or youth; in most instances, a combination of the three, most likely.

Seriously, what aesthetic criteria are we using to identify the burn and dodge in this portrait that is, as you illustratively put it, "terrible"? Composition is not a uniform concept; there are no absolute notions of composition which we may point to as objective. This means that, just like basically every other form of self-expression, that interpretation is entirely subjective. Different people take different things away from the same work of art.

But anyways, is it the years as a wedding photographer that make you feel qualified to speak confidently and definitively about this? Or did an entry level art appreciation or photography as art class give you the false impression that you know what you’re talking about?

How can you point to flaws in handling the medium, when photography itself was in its infancy as an art form?