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

[nonot]

It's good to be critical of your work, but yikes...

I don't know, sometimes I take photos I really like that others don't and sometimes I take photos I really like that other's do too. I don't know which of these are my favourites, I do know that I take plenty bad ones in the course of making these though, and it all seems worth it to me in the end.

 

[Frontman]

The only time my photos are truly "woeful" is when I am impatient. One can't simply go out and expect to take a bunch of wonderful pictures just because one feels like it. You are more likely to find something if you go out and look for it, but it can take time to find something really nice. Many people give up half-way, and end up disappointed with the results.

For some time now I've been in the habit of carrying a camera everywhere. I carry my OM4 on a strap around my neck, under my coat, or I carry my old Leica in my coat pocket; you never know when and where you'll find a great picture, and it's sad to see something work photographing and not have a camera with you at the time.

I teach afternoon classes, so my mornings are always free. I get up early, put on my coat, and grab a camera or two (or three), and head out. I'll ride my bicycle around the city, or hike out in the country, exploring new places, and hunting for good images.

Last week I grabbed my large format gear (hard to carry on a bicycle) and headed to the local (and reputedly haunted) lake to get some pictures of the last of the fall leaves. The scenery around the lake was beautiful, and I found thickets full of ripe raspberries to snack on during the hike. I set up my camera in 5 different locations, taking 20 pictures.

Unfortunately, when setting up, I had my meter set to the wrong ISO, so all of my images were under-exposed. $25 for film, $30 for processing, and for all the effort I ended up with only 2 shots which could be saved. Even so, I enjoyed the day, and didn't grudge the expense (too much).

2 days later I went to the same lake carrying my Canon FD kit, and perhaps half the roll were what I would call "keepers".

 

[astbecu]

I accept with information:It is probably worth remembering that the great work you see here and elsewhere, including that of great photographers, is the result of practice and thousands of frames shot.

 

[_mark__]

What about cameras next to panes of blotter acid or bloody noses dribbling coke?


[/I]

Party time!

 

[atlcruiser]

I fall into the 90% crap category but of that 90% I like many 🙂 Maybe I jsut like looking at my pictures.

Getting back into film after years of being away jsut makes me happy. If anyone else likes it so much the better......

The learning curve is the best part. I try to look at each shot and see why it is good, bad or crap. When i see improvement......🙂

I am doing 5+ rolls a week

I like these...4 days in the woods and 8 rolls...got maybe 8 shots that i thought were "good" but I had a blast

 

[DNG]

I have been thinking about this for a while now...

My background - I teach accounting, and write accounting textbooks, I have had a successful professional career, and now at quite a young age work part-time in academia. Time is not a problem - it used to be, when I was a work-a-holic, but not anymore.

Photography is an artistic outlet, I drive my friends crazy with cameras and photos on trips and on weekends... but, almost everything I take is woeful, woeful, woeful. Truly horrible. I don't much like looking at them myself.

Yet, I really enjoy the process, the thought involved, applying what is (for me) a very different thought process and skillset.

So I find myself with a great hobby, yet there's nothing to show. I don't have anything worth uploading, and thankfully apart from various photos that document events my friends don't ask for any.

I'm curious... how many others love their photography but not the results they get?

Cheers to all...
Fergus

I, as you, take a lot of images, I post very few though. most wind up in the recycle bin.. I own nice gear, and I have talent here and there, but, not at the level I would like. So, the old saying is true -- It's me oh Lord --, not my gear.

Although, I didn't have the time to put into the photography as I would like until recently with my new job that is part-time and only M-F., So, the Weekends will have more photo-time in them. I hope to up some of my skill sets with this new time I am setting aside. Time will tell.

But, photography is also a stress relief too. So, sometimes the images just don't count anyway. It is more the process, then the results

 

[paulfish4570]

i occasionally take woeful ones, a good number of OK ones, and a few very good ones. but i am a merciless self-editor aftyer the cd is in hand. what ends up on my photobucket albums is maybe 1/25th or less of what i save to the computer ...

 

[DNG]

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.

This is what I have to do too. I live in a huge apartment subdivision. So, I have to drive to a small town, rural area, or to a the city downtown area. I can also visit a few "Out-Door" malls that are popular now. (2 or 3 streets of stores in an "Off-Street",.. Street like environment).

 

[skibeerr]

Pick yourself up....( it's a song)

Pick yourself up....( it's a song)

To the OP, thank you for making me realise I am not alone.

I find that it helps to prepare, think about what you are going to shoot and what your end result will be.

I am a manual laborer, when I was learning I had the luck of having older co workers who made me start slow, after I started as a berserk trying to show willing, going thru the motions knowing the why of each step and building up from there. Its like rolling a kayak or Uchi-komi in budo sports.
Mindful repetition.

I am Sure you will find your way.


( I wrote the middle part mainly for myself, to get up and do some repetition)

 

[NDAv]

As an update or addendum to my previous post:

I have found that my "success" rate has increased dramatically in recent months, and it has forced me to redefine my standard of "good" photography to make it more restrictive, to cut down on the amount of photos that I am processing and uploading to my site. This has also forced to delete hundreds of photographs over the past several months that I had already uploaded online (including some recent uploads) because they no longer met my new standards.

My success rate has stayed constant at 5-10% over the years, but only if the you don't take into account the change in the standards by which I have been selecting photos. Based on my current 2010 standard, my success rate in 2005 was less than 1%. Two-thirds of my photos on Flickr are from 2009 and 2010, even though I have been photographing since 2004.

I do find that I have tendency to overrate new photos though, and I do often find myself deleting photos from my site a few months after I had uploaded them, after the excitement wears off and I rejudge them. And then there are those photos I have dismissed as bad and years later I look at them again and decide that they worth processing and presenting to other people after all.

But it just goes to show that saying that you take a a lot of good photos or a lot bad photos may not mean much to other other people. I might think that 5% of my photos are good, but you might think that all my photos are all garbage, or that my photos are all great. It doesn't really mean much.

Btw, on the subject of suburbia, living in the largest suburb in North America, I think it can be interesting to photograph. The supposed homogeneity and sterility of suburbs can be an interesting theme to photograph. Or you can try to photograph the unique things that stand out in suburbs, the things that resist the universalizing and conforming forces of suburbia. That's what I try to do (without much success, to be honest).

 

[jbrianfoto]

I'm guilty of being enamored with my own images, because of this I am very careful of what I show to others (because I feel like I'm forcing my interests on friends). Someone (a photographer friend) told me once "..remember, nobody really cares about what you like, they only care about what they like." Going thru my contact sheets, the bulk are crap, mostly becaue of technical flaws. Once in a long while, something will jump out that can be printed. Out of those images, probably 1 in 20 are worth showing to friends, family - but really no one else.

 

[Bogotron]

I do mostly street photography, and every time I click the shutter I accept the fact that the shot is more likely than not going to fail, or at the very least not be very noteworthy or good. The act of doing street photography is a joy to me, and if I get one or two keepers out of a roll of 36 then I'm happy and the rest of the frames were worth it. And if I get a great, portfolio-worthy shot, then it's worth however many hundreds of frames of mediocre shots that I took to get that one. The potential of something great happening when the camera goes up to my eye is worth it to me, and I'll never get anything, good or bad, if I'm not out there tripping the shutter.

Most of the street-shooters I know feel the same way, but one of my other friends does mostly portraits and mostly medium format and he says that if he doesn't get half that are keepers then he isn't happy.

 

[denmark.yuzon]

I usually get zero keepers in one 36 exposure roll. But after a while, when I take a look at it again, There's always that picture that I missed and worth keeping..

I do get lucky sometimes.. its a 36 exposure roll.. 1 good frame is happiness for me.

 

[pvdhaar]

I usually get zero keepers in one 36 exposure roll. But after a while, when I take a look at it again, There's always that picture that I missed and worth keeping..

I do get lucky sometimes.. its a 36 exposure roll.. 1 good frame is happiness for me.

Same story here.. when I first look at the stack of prints, there's always some disappointment. The pictures are never as good as I imagined them to be. But when I look at them a second time the next day, some of them are actually quite fine.. Amazing isn't it?

 

[FrankS]

Photography is a bit like golf. Most of my shots (with both camera and club) are nothing to get too excited about, but every now and then I hit a really good one, and it keeps me motivated.

 

[xxloverxx]

I usually get zero keepers in one 36 exposure roll. But after a while, when I take a look at it again, There's always that picture that I missed and worth keeping..

I do get lucky sometimes.. its a 36 exposure roll.. 1 good frame is happiness for me.

+1 on that…

Very happy that this roll I got about 5 keepers. In the end, only 1 photo from 2 or 3 rolls gets uploaded and shared,

“Why my blog almost never gets updated” 🙄

 

[J-P]

Interesting to read all the comments and views. I have to admit, I can't buy film right now. I'm stuck using only digital (it's free). Having been travelling and working odd jobs over the past year, I have to admit that I'm really looking forward to getting settled down somewhere and hope eventually get a simple darkroom set up.

The one thing that makes me slightly uneasy is that when I go camera walking some days, I might take 200 images or more. Of these 200 images, maybe 10% are OK.... but during a year, I might whittle these down to a handful. I've never counted how many photo's I take in a year. Bulk film/self rolling I think! I'll have to be a LOT more picky with film, but at the same time I fear losing the shots I'll refrain from taking.

All that said, I come from a design education. I am informed with regards to composition and would like to think my exposures are mostly good (technically I can always improve). What bothers me is that judgement call that you have to make when taking a photo. Is what you're snapping really that interesting... will it remain as a memorable image? Or will it just again - join an ever growing pile of half faded memories. I think that's where it's important to ensure that you enjoy the process 🙂

This is especially true of ambling street shots. Sometimes I just see uncomfortable looks from uncomfortable people who've had a camera shoved in their face. Whilst this does grab a viewers interest... it amazes me how people can continue producing essentially the same images for such a long time.

With regard to copying from masters. It was always outlined to me never to just copy, but always study, there is a big difference when you have to break into your own style (I can well believe advertising is nothing more than constant regurgitation). I personally find the idea of being some kind of creative walking patchwork fanboy rather distasteful.

Anyway - I'll wrap up the ranting, the sun's out and I should be too. I voted 'a few'. Hopefully when I improve, I'll manage to avoid taking the shots that I know would be a waste.

 

[Pico]

My photos are generally depressing as hell.

 

[wgerrard]

I seldom go out intending to get a shot of a specific nature. For me, the greatest pleasure in photography is going someplace, preferably someplace new to me, and going walkabout with a camera. I shoot what looks interesting; familiar territory is, almost by definition, less interesting.

Many of the photos I take are disappointments when I first look at them. I.e., the photo does not resemble what I saw when I took the photo. However, I have noticed that when I return to a photo after some passage of time. I often have a better opinion of it. Perhaps that is because, with the fading of the memory of being in that place, I am better able to judge the photo on its own merits.

 

[Armoured]

My brother had a good comment about golf today that I think relates. He was out with some acquaintance who'd just come back from some fabulous course in a beautiful location. The acquaintance said he barely remembered it because he was playing badly and stressed about it.

My brother's response to him: "What does it matter how you're playing if you're having a good time? Don't let the results get in the way."

A nice statement that perhaps applies here. The OP said he enjoyed shooting and working at it. Grace consists in letting that be enough.