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

[Al Kaplan]

Another way to give yourself insentive to produce better photographswould be to do an on-line photo blog. I started one a few yearsago as I started to slide into retirement mode. The original ideawas to print up old photos from my negative files and write about what was going on at the time, who the client was, maybe what equipment I used or unusual experiences I had while shooting the job. Sometimes I'd put an ad or magazine page the blog. A couple of years ago the creative juices got the blog side tracked. I'd always been active in local politics so I started shooting stuff about the local political acene accompanied by tongue in cheek commentary about the mayor, the city council, election campaigns, etc. At the same time I started using a toy monkey in some of the photos (even in city hall at council meetings!). During our recent city election most of the candidates wanted to be in photos with Monkette, the toy monkey, in hopes of getting in the blog which has a sizeable local following.

Frankly, a lot of the photos are far from being prize winners, but they're good enough for what they are, they make people laugh, and it gives Monkette a sense of purpose so she's not out wandering the neighborhood and filching their mangos and bananas.

http://www.thepriceofsilver.blogspot.com

 

[dmr]

Another way to give yourself insentive to produce better photographs would be to do an on-line photo blog. I started one a few years ago as I started to slide into retirement mode.

I've seen your blog, one of those I've bookmarked and do check every so often.

I started a photo blog back in 2006 (link below) and I really didn't have any purpose or theme when I did it, one day I just did it. It's been far more rewarding than I imagined back then.

Lately I've been doing posts on local-interest things, some inspired by Kevin Walsh's Forgotten NY site. Things like walk-throughs of vintage, deteriorating, and revitalized neighborhoods, street oddities and necrology, etc. I also have a number of "kind of everything" posts in there, things like the Weegee experiments, night shots, etc.

I enjoy getting comments, but as you probably know, they don't come as often as you would like. 🙁 It seems like there's a ratio of one comment for hundreds, if not thousands of views!

One thing I've noticed from looking at the logs on the blog. I can always tell when there's certain activity elsewhere when I start getting hits on a particular page. For example, I can almost always tell when the "Subway W/NW" thread here has been bumped, since I start getting hits on the "Beneath the Windy City" blog page.

I don't know if the blog has improved my photography or not, but it's inspired me to get out and regularly shoot, and post some shots I've taken but have not shared. 🙂

 

[Pavel+]

I answered that I am happy with some of my photos because that is fundamentaly true. What does need to be explained is that I get unhappy when after a while the photos all look good. There is something limiting in having "good" or even "great" pictures (as can be inferred from other peoples opinions) because it is somehow stifling. If ever I produced every shot worthy of something in an Ansel Adams anthology .... I would find a different hobby.

I reached a plateau with sports shooting. I was safisfied with the quality and so were the customers. I initially exceeded my expectations ... but after a while it became formulaic, limited by the lenses and access - and it felt like shooting fish in a barrel.

So I guess that it is only in the state of reaching and stretching that satisfaction truly comes. Dissatisfaction ... is the satisfaction. ??

 

[Pavel+]

And funny enough ... that is what led me to the rangefinder. The system that makes me feel like a fish out of water. Alien. Exciting!

 

[goo0h]

The main issue I face is that what I see before taking the photo is not what comes out on the film! Maybe I don't think in 2d well? Maybe I need to find a lens that is a closer match to my metal vision? Oooh, an excuse for an attack of G.A.S.!! 😀

I find myself in a similar boat. Often times I'll see something, be moved to want to take a picture, but what I saw and what I captured don't always align. This may be naive, but to a large extent I think that's experience. Since I love taking pictures, hopefully my experience will improve what I capture.

I don't post stuff on flickr because I feel it's great. More, to track whether I'm improving, or going downhill! 😉 Also, i have a terrible time discerning whether what I have is crap, or perhaps something a bit better. Often I've been surprised at what I thought was a quick nothing-much grab shot, turned out to be liked by several. So, I never really know. I suppose that too will improve (I hope!) with experience.

That book someone had a link too looks interesting. I think I'll get that.

Oh, another thing that's interesting, at least to me, is looking back at the photos that were posted, which got good responses, which didn't, and asking myself what was on my mind (or not!) at the time. That in iteslf is an interesting journey at times.

 

[SteveM_NJ]

i noticed this thread/poll, a bit old , but I answered the poll (like movies - they arent old until you've seen them, it is new to me, as i just now saw it/read it/answered it).
As for "happy with my own shots"...not just no - but heck no.
the last 3 rolls i had shot, developed, hung to dry, looked them over and dropped them into the trash without even making a contact print.
no - i dont share them with others, - i am in the 5% minority as far as this poll goes.

Just keep going.

 

[jky]

Unhappy with more than 99% of my photos, but that less than 1% makes up for it....

 

[mfunnell]

I certainly take woeful photos all the time.

Some perhaps representative numbers that I came up with by way of personal example:

A few months ago, I spent four days driving between Brisbane and Sydney, taking photos (digital only) along the way. Checking the numbers:

807 shutter clicks
423 not deleted in-camera (ie. 384 were observably rubbish, just from the LCD)
66 I figured were worth printing (for one reason or another)
60 printed larger and put in an album (which was all it could hold)
3 worth bothering with beyond the album of the trip (with, perhaps, a few "maybes" as well)

Note that I'm not claiming any as being especially good - just reporting my own reaction to the photos I took. With film, I suspect I'd have taken fewer that were abject cr*p but may have missed some of the ones I liked through being more conservative in my approach.

...Mike

 

[Al Kaplan]

My blog really has no predictability. It has everything from current local political commentary where the photo wasn't chosen for being a great photo, to stuff that I shot decades ago.

Lately it has had me getting an ancient Minolta Autocord back in functional shape so I can continue a project that I was briefly involved with around 1965: shooting with a pin-hole aperture up against the front element of the lens. More depth of field than you can imagine from a few centimeters to infinity, and you can still see and focus through the wide open viewing lens. I expect to be making a lot of use of my Leitz table top tripod because of the long exposures and the ability to include close to the ground objects in the compostitions.

http://thepriceofsilver.blogspot.com

 

[lazarza]

I'm a bit late to this too, but I've voted as being happy with few of my pictures. One or two a roll, and, as others have already said, that's often being happy with a shot that isn't perfect, just more or less what I wanted.

It seems to me to be a little like playing golf (which I did very briefly a couple of years ago). Often, when you tee up or frame a shot you think that this time it's going to be great, this is really going to be great. When you see the result your immediate reaction is `God, if only I had......(insert necessary adjustment to swing/framing etc etc). Well next time I will and then it'll be great.'

It sounds frustrating and a waste of time and money, but in reality this is what keeps me taking pictures and I'm damned sure it's what keeps golfers playing golf. The promise of a little moment of harmony and perfection!

 

[NDAv]

Well, least it is a good thing to know that many of your photos are woeful. It the past, I would have been lucky in one month to have gotten even one photo that is worth. But I didn't know it. I did not realize how woeful my photos were. And so I had over 300 photos online 1-2 years ago, and less than 30 of those remain online today because I realized how woeful the rest were. I currently only have 103 photos online today. I can usually take at least one worth photo a day now, which 30 times the "success" rate I had 1 or 2 years ago. Though maybe these "successful" photos are still garbage.

 

[dmr]

I just took in 4 rolls the other day to the local Walgreens. The conversation went kinda like this:

He: One set of prints or two?

Me: No prints, develop only, add a CD.

He: Actually, we do have a special, two sets of prints for the price of one.

Me: LOL! I don't want ONE set of prints, let alone two!

He: Uh, why don't you want prints?

Me: 'cause 90% of the photos suck!

He: LOL!

(Fast-forward two hours ...)

He: Those don't suck!

🙂

 

[dee]

At least with digital , the film winds on ... frankly , many of mine and my family's photos are ordinary - made worse buy auto focus which misses the essentials . But as I do this too , or take many more for just one shot , who am I to say anything ?
Maybe they are having at least as much fun - with a lot less anxiety!
For them , the record is the purpose , not the perfect photo - maybe I should listen to them ! For me , it's an escape , good or bad .

 

[st3ph3nm]

I'd be willing to guess, Fergus, that you've been taking photos for some years now. I'd also be willing to guess that if you looked at your photos from, say, 4 or 5 years ago, or whatever, and compared them to the photos you're taking now, you'll see some remarkable improvements.

I just had two films developed - one of them I've posted one shot into my gallery (and it got more comments on the subject than the photo itself 🙂 ) and the other I've posted almost half of, with a number of positive comments from people whose work I really respect. A couple of years back I couldn't imagine being so pleased with a roll that I'd dare share more than one or two shots here. I hope you'll show us some of yours, sometime. Someone who loves what they're doing must be doing *something* right!

Cheers,
Steve

 

[st3ph3nm]

What's the idea of cameras with coffee or beer photos?

You're right. It's time to make a change for the better:

 

[wgerrard]

A thought-provoking thread, which I've been avoiding.

I don't think I turn out Utter Garbage, but I do think I turn out a very small amount of photos I am unequivocally happy about. Perhaps that's due to the common characteristic of being your own worst critic. Perhaps not.

Two other issues do annoy me.

First, when I go to some lengths to get a good image of some particular scene, and all the frames are junk, I get annoyed.

Second, I'm jealous of all the urban big city RFF'ers who post those b&w street shots, even if I'm not a really big street photography fan. But, I do envy those who have easy access to good subject matter. I know it's a cliche that good pictures can be found anywhere, but I'm convinced they're harder to come by in suburbia.

 

[Al Kaplan]

Big city urban street scenes ARE hard to find in the suburbs. Look for suburban scenes. Some of them make for great subjects.

 

[wgerrard]

Big city urban street scenes ARE hard to find in the suburbs. Look for suburban scenes. Some of them make for great subjects.

I take your point, Al. But, to indulge in a bit of grousing, I like to take my camera and go walking for a few hours. In my particular suburb of 100,000+, I'd see cars, McMansions and gated communities, schools and strip malls and the odd jogger and dog walker. In most of those neighborhoods, strangers on the street are so unusual that one armed with a camera would probably attract a police patrol in minutes.

That said, I live in an unusually prosperous and unusually regulated place, both of which foster an unusual degree of homogeneity. (E.g., the town has people on staff who go around removing illegal signs, like one hyping a yard sale. Our McDonalds are archless.)

My solution is to go somewhere else for a day or so.

 

[Al Kaplan]

wgerrard, if I were living in your situation I'd put a lawn chair beneath a big umbrella in my front yard so I could sit there and guard my "HOUSE FOR SALE" sign. Living in a place like that would drive me bonkers!

I'm quite active in local government. I served about a dozen years on the North Miaimi Planning Commission, I'm currently in my sixth year on the Board of Adjustment granting or denying zoning variances, I read several magazines every month about urban planning and land use issues. I'm not coming at this out of noplace! Neighborhoods like yours are ideal for the people who bought in. The problem is that people change as they get older, the ethnicity will change along with concepts on landscaping, fence and hedge heights, set-backs, what is an acceptable color to paint the house, etc.

It's better to have a system in place that allows for changes. Trying too hard to keep things static because it suits the old timers doesn't always preserve property values. It can have the opposite effect. It can discourage people from buying the houses if tastes change in the prospective buyers in keeping with current trends.

 

[Damaso]

You went to school for accounting right? You didn't just pick up an Excel spreadsheet and start fooling around right? Just because you have access to the equipment doesn't mean you will be good. Most, though not all, people interested in photography need some kind of training (just look at the photos posted on the forum).

As someone who studied formally and now teaches privately as well as works professionally I can't say enough about having some guidance. With enough motivation and practice you can certainly improve a great deal on your own without help; it's just that most people don't.

I've been studying German for two years now and I can say I am the kind of person which learns a lot from a teacher and very little when left to my own devices. I might have everything I need to keep studying on my own but I just don't, I need structure. I think a lot of people are like me in this regard.

Keep shooting and good luck!