I keep revisiting the same images is this normal?

[bo_lorentzen]

Full disclousure, I posted this on LUF, and got a series of polite comments about how lovely the pictures is.... But nobody remotely touched on the concept of revisiting images, which I think is the far more interesting topic, I realize that I have been doing this for a long time.

Last year I scanned my grandfathers negatives from 1920-1990ish and discovered that over the years he would revisit the same images, new locations but same "image" with same treatment, same composition with same foreground and background treatments. He did that as a young man, during the war, and with his grand-children.

Lately as I have been scanning old negatives, key-wording them in LightRoom, this is starting to become more clear to me. I find a distinct thread in my treatment of portraits, etc.

I'm not saying this is a bad thing. Just trying to understand what is going on here.


The question:
Do you guys do this..?
Do the images improve over time..?
Or is this a scary sign of not really "seeing" anything new..?

Oslo 1988 Pentax 645 on velvia

New York 2009 M8 28mm

Hong Kong 2010 M9 35mm

Maybe there is counseling for this. 😀

 

[robklurfield]

why not? how many times did Monet paint those water lillies?

 

[Sparrow]

Em ... yes, yes and I do it so it's perfectly normal 😉

I revisit this church each summer, fascinating spot, tourist beach at one side and a nature reserve at the other

 

[damien.murphy]

'One photo out of focus is a mistake, ten photo out of focus are an experimentation, one hundred photo out of focus are a style'

Perhaps you've discovered your style/ subject.. 🙂

 

[jan normandale]

I've got about 4 images that I keep reshooting. One I've been shooting for over 5 years. I haven't got what I see yet. I've been close a couple of times so it shows me I can get what I am looking for if I'm in the right place at the right time..

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Honest Ed's: 11 - 2008 by jannx [カメラマン] breaking it up, on Flickr[/IMG]

 

[bo_lorentzen]

Ahh yes, Van Gogh and Monet, though i suspect they were rather deliberately working towards a goal, im my case it is more a discovery that "wait, i did this image before". 😀

Jan, that is exactly what I mean, I keep massaging a image maybe to match a mental image of the situation.

Stewart, nice church, I would be revisiting that too if I could.

 

[jsrockit]

I photograph the same things a lot. The light changes and they never look the same.

 

[JoeV]

I think I tend to revisit the same locations time and again, mainly because it's in the most photogenic part of my town, and hence run into similar subjects time and again.

I don't think my interest in doing this is for lack of subject matter, but rather that I'm fascinated by the geography and people in this particular area, and like to see how it changes over time, while at the same time it pretty much remains the same.

I get a sense that the passage of time is easier to comprehend when something tangible in the series of images taken over that timespan remains constant.

~Joe

 

[nikon_sam]

I do the same thing but with musicians..I could show you hundreds of pictures of them...
For me it's appreciating what they are doing (talent & time it takes to get to where they are) and the fact that I would love to do it myself...
Maybe he would have liked to paint or did paint and when he sees someone doing it he gets caught up in the moment...he sees the talent and it's a thing of beauty to him...photographing it allows him to hold on to that moment...

 

[f16sunshine]

It's not normal. I think you should go look at others artists work in a different place at a different time for inspiration. Oh wait a sec 😀

Lovely photos!

 

[Pablito]

The process of photographing begs for this.

 

[Bob Michaels]

<snip> Do you guys do this..? <snip>

I photographed at least one full day a week from January through July 2005 on the Daytona Beach boardwalk. That is an area about 15 yards wide and 1/4 mile long. Now I was photographing primarily the people who come there and they change with the low-budget winter visitors, NASCAR crowd, Bike Week crowd, Spring Break crowd, Black College Reunion crowd, and the traditional summer tourists. I had photographed there for years before and still do.

I photographed every week in South Apopka, a community of 3,000 people, for 3+ years. Still photograph some there.

I have photographed in Cuba for 50+ days over 4 trips in the last year.

I really believe you need to spend extended time in a place to get the feel of everything.

 

[Jack Conrad]

Hmmm, maybe your subconscious is telling you to become a painter.

 

[Morry Katz]

I believe this is perfectly normal. Recently I was looking at contact sheets from 50 years ago and was surprised to see the connections to what I'm doing today. I'm still interested in many of the same things now, as then. That's me. And it will probably be that way till the day I cash in. Enjoy what you're doing. Enjoy who you are.
Morry Katz - Lethbridge, Canada