Does anyone else take woeful photos? (all the time)

Does anyone else take woeful photos? (all the time)

  • I am happy with many (or most) of my photos

    Votes: 99 20.2%

  • I am happy with some (a few) of my photos

    Votes: 289 59.1%

  • I am unhappy with most of my photos

    Votes: 82 16.8%

  • Photography is for me, it's private, I don't show my work to others

    Votes: 9 1.8%

  • None of the above

    Votes: 10 2.0%
  • Total voters
    489
JohnTF said:
I'm beginning to get thirsty. ;-) Do you have any troubles with your Horizont?

Regards, John
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Oh no that was not my web site ( I wish!!! ):eek:
I do however have a Horizont 202, and have had no problems with it over the last ten years. Its a super camera and I should use it more!!
 
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Some very good advice here in the form of the comments suggesting 1. Don't worry just enjoy it 2. Edit later, be sure of why you're editing an image 'in' or 'out' and never show the real duffers and 3. Experiment and play, if it's your hobby you should enjoy the messing around aspect too.

As for 'keepers,' I don't care how many I get per roll so long as I get one that sums up the reason I released the shutter. I personally also agree with the sentiment that an image shouldn't require words to explain it, this does not mean words should never go with images...simply that images should not be reliant on words.
 
It's always the same. When you go out and try to create the perfect artsy fartsy image, you come back displeased and think all the images you just took are crap. But when you just take the camera out for snapshots here and there on a vacation or something, you always end up with keepers. I think the secret is to just relax and shoot without thinking, "this is it. im ansel adams today..let me find my subject"
 
John Robertson said:
Oh no that was not my web site ( I wish!!! ):eek:

I do however have a Horizont 202, and have had no problems with it over the last ten years. Its a super camera and I should use it more!!
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Sorry, I was not too clear, I just saw you had one, I have its antique ancestor, and its descendant, and in between I had one of these that I went a long way around the barn to try and get it serviced, eventually giving up. Gave horrible vertical streaks.

Did not have a good experience with Kiev USA service, ran up a fortune in shipping.

I too should use the panoramic equipment I have, or give it to someone who will.

I did note the name was different, however, if you have a list of those locations---. ;-)

Regards, John
 
wblanchard said:
It's always the same. When you go out and try to create the perfect artsy fartsy image, you come back displeased and think all the images you just took are crap. But when you just take the camera out for snapshots here and there on a vacation or something, you always end up with keepers. I think the secret is to just relax and shoot without thinking, "this is it. im ansel adams today..let me find my subject"
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Am thinking the "chance favors the prepared mind" type approach, it does seem that the idea that you can wake up one morning and just set out to shoot something that will change lives on a particular day is not practical for me.

I do suspect that some people have that talent, or perhaps it is my paranoia . ;-)

I am happy when opportunity presents itself, am not comfortable that I can manipulate the situation to my advantage all the time.

And there are the times when the image is there but I cannot capture it.

I have started keeping a camera in the trunk of the car ;-)

Regards, John
 
JohnTF said:
Sorry, I was not too clear, I just saw you had one, I have its antique ancestor, and its descendant, and in between I had one of these that I went a long way around the barn to try and get it serviced, eventually giving up. Gave horrible vertical streaks.

sounds like lube problem with the drum drive gears (common fault I believe.)
try here??
http://web.ncf.ca/ac210/photography/horizont.html
Looking at this however, I think I would rather try to dismantle a land mine!!!





The most useful site for visitors to Scotland is this

http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/index.html
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Thanks, the guys at Kiev USA could not fix it the three times they tried,

so I moved on.

I bookmarked the site, if I come up, I will more than likely visit with the other John Robertson. ;-)

Regards, John
 
I once have the same discussion with a professional photographer friend of mine. She only said: "If you cannot make it good, make it big..."
 
My relationship with photography is similar to my relationship with myself. With my ego, and sense of self-confidence.

As I grow older, I get closer and closer to fully accepting who I am, on many levels. But not just accepting, also understanding, and appreciating.

With photography, the more I shoot (and now with film, the less), the closer I get to appreciating my own photographs.

I think it is not so much about whether your photos are "good" objectively. Obviously that is nice. But I think your photos will undoubtedly be "good" if you find a way to truly express yourself, as opposed to modeling your art after everything else before you.

I believe for me it is a spectrum. In the beginning it was mostly copying, trying to master the picture of the mountain, or the tree. Then it was cities, and nights, and steam. Then it was friends and documentary styles.

I "mastered" none of them, but I keep getting closer to a type of photo that is more me, less "else".

Hope some of that made sense. Keep shooting, and live life!
 
The day you think your work is perfect, is the day you no longer strive to do any better.

Not being satisfied with your work is a good thing. It's what pushes you to get out there and improve upon what you've already done before. Never expect the end result to be the primary source of satisfaction, it's the process involved that should keep you fulfilled.
 
Fergus, many interesting suggestions to you. I add my one: try to experiment, make something different. If you see an interesting subject which as instinct you frame horizontal do it but after it take some pictures of the same subject and frame it vertical, or tilt. Or you take the picture with the correct exposure than repeat overexposing 2 or 3 stops (or underexpose). Or if you think a normal lens is the most appropriate for the subject do it and than try a complete different lens ( years ago I took a postrait workshop with Steve Sebring and one of the first question he asked was which lens should we use: we all answered a medium tele. His replay was : Ok tomorrow you all take a portait with the widest lens you have ! ).
Now thgis is the first part of my suggestion , the second is when you have the picture ready (possibly printed even if small format ) and possibly after a few week in order to decrease the emotion fo the moment in which you took the pictures compare the various pictures, combine them in different sequences, play a little with them.
Probaly you'll discharge many pictures (do no throw away, just put in a box) but you'll end up with some visual interesting stories. Repeat the exercise so long you like it!
At the end what is important is you like the process, ciao
robert
 
Print up a couple dozen of your most "snapshotty" lousy photos to 11x14, tell your photographer friends that you've finally succeeded in mastering the techniques of capturing the "snapshot mystique", invite us all to the opening of your exhibit at the art museum! And doing it WITHOUT having to invest in a Holga!
 
Al Kaplan said:
Print up a couple dozen of your most "snapshotty" lousy photos to 11x14, tell your photographer friends that you've finally succeeded in mastering the techniques of capturing the "snapshot mystique", invite us all to the opening of your exhibit at the art museum! And doing it WITHOUT having to invest in a Holga!
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Thanks Al, I got a laugh out of this!

Incidentally I already have the holga, didn't really change my photos much... :)
 
Good for YOU. I'm serious about that invite too. I've been to a few photo exhibits at MOCA (The Museum of Contemporary Art) here in North Miami that had the "Snapshot Mystique" BIG time!

A couple of decades ago Spiratone, a New York mail order place that specialied in odd ball photo related "Junque", marketed a single element lens mounted in a decent enough focusing mount. You could fit it to most SLR's via a T-mount adapter. I think it was called a Portragon. Compared to that, a Holga looked sharp!

It was really a +10 close-up lens with a focal length of 100mm.
 
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Roger Hicks said:
I agree with everything you said. But what is 'trying too hard'?
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Trying too hard is often that life hands you a "Masterpiece" of a situation and you get overwhelmed with it, try to hard to live up to it and miss the point of it as an artist or a photojournalist.

If you recognize a situation as having photographic potential, then you have in essence, already photographed it with your mind's eye.

So all you need to do is relax, take it in and not force it. But if you miss the shot, sometimes you only missed it in your camera, not in your recognition of it. So as long as your memory serves you well, chances are you won't miss those convergences as easily next time.

I have always been of the belief that there are award winning images in every corner of the world every hour, but you have to be tuned into seeing them, anticipating them.

I see incessantly, so I need a camera with me at all times to occasionally validate the brilliance that life is to me.

That is why I photograph and that is why I am mostly very happy with what I turn out....But I am *always* pushing for better.
 
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For me, photography is a very private thing: I like to photograph on my own, taking time to see and record details or compositions I'd miss if I was otherwise distracted. I enjoy looking at perhaps 1/3 or 1/4 of those images again, and when I revisit the same places again the memories of the shots sometimes resonate with what I see. I put some of those images on flickr for family and others to see. Of those, I'd guess about 1/25 to 1/50 are images that other people seem to appreciate. You have to decide who your hobby is for. For me, the whole activity is deeply satisfying and relaxing, and I don't worry about whether the aesthetics agree with those of others.
 
Mission missed

Mission missed

KM-25 said:
Trying too hard is often that life hands you a "Masterpiece" of a situation and you get overwhelmed with it, try to hard to live up to it and miss the point of it as an artist or a photojournalist.
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As an amateur military history buff there is a phenomenon in the world of the Military Commander where the battle is often lost when he losses sight of the overall battleplan and fixates upon some interim objective that then becomes the new goal. We as human's are too easily distracted from our major goals and end up chasing moonbeams, while the real story, picture, purpose simply marches by unnoticed and out of our grasp. The road to any destination is strewn with rocks and potholes and taking that "once in a lifetime photo' is no exception.

Reading this thread has been very beneficial to me. I had already given up chasing the "magic camera", but now I understand some advice given to me by a fellow RFF'er that said to just take pictures of things that interested me. Record them as I saw them not for art's sake, but to preserve the images for others so that they can view the images after the subjects are gone from the landscape.
 
Al Kaplan said:
On the bright side you seem to realize that your photos are the result of your own vision and efforts. You're not chasing after The Magic Camera.

You may just be putting too much effort into it. After a life of using my cameras to pay the bills, buy houses, cars, see an ex-wife through medical school, one kid through law school, the other now working on his doctorate (and I'm next to broke), I learned something important about photography. You don't have to always make great photographs. You have to have the competance to always come back with useable photographs, something the editor or art director can work with.

Some shoots turn out great, others so-so, and a few you're ashamed to hand in. It happens to everybody. It happened to photographers shooting photo essays for Life Magazine. You can't always control or pick your subjects, sometimes the light or the weather stinks, your foot might be hurting, your kid failed the big math test Friday, your mind is elsewhere.

Carry a camera everyplace, but don't head out with the intent of "making photographs". Keep track of the light by metering from time to time, and keep your camera set accordingly. Keep the focus set to a point further away than your likely subjects so you always know which way to turn it to focus. Work on learning one lens so well that your brain projects a "bright frame" around your proposed picture. You can learn other focal lengths later. Don't kick yourself on the days when you didn't take picture number one. If the picture had been there that bright frame in your brain would have lit up and "aim, focus, fire" would have been a compulsion. Keep reminding yourself that this should be relaxing, that there's no editor waiting for you to come back to the office with a selection of useable photographs. No deadlines. Your family will still eat and still have a roof over their heads.

Now there's also another way to go about it. Pretend that there's an over-riding reason for shooting photos. Maybe "testing" three or four films in a new developer, trying to zero in on the optimum developing time. Maybe borrow every lens you can find in a given focal length, and camera bodies too if the lenses won't fit yours, and seeing how they render various subjects, or just checking their bokeh at a few f-stops. No pressure. No attempt to "make great photographs". Raid comes up with some of the most fantastic photos of his daughters while he's trying to show the difference between a Biotar from 1959 and a Pancolar from 1971, and somehow he manages to convince them that they're having as much fun as he's having.


I'll admit it. I always carry a camera. I'd feel naked without it. There's a small incident light meter in a belt pouch and an extra roll or two in my pocket. That's it. If I'm out shooting for a reason, yes, I carry several cameras and lenses, too much film, an assortment of filters, usually a small flash with spare batteries and synch cords, notebook and a couple of pens, and a stack of business cards.

Even with that camera always there, hanging from the strap, there are times when I'll go a few days without exposing a single frame. I don't feel guilty or unfulfilled. There's no sense in taking bad pictures "just because" and no sense in shooting useable pictures when they have no use.
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Great attitude & gems of wisdom here...thanks.
 
I take truly mediocre pictures. I have thousands of pounds worth of equipment and it makes no difference. I have tried taking photos with simple, cheap cameras and the results are largely the same.

As I get older theoretically the results should get better but this does not appear to be the case.

I continue to buy equipment, I continue to take poor pictures. I don't care, I am enjoying myself and to me it is a hobby.

However, it would be nice one day to appreciate the results!

Michael
 
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