Improved / Unimproved

[reagan]

Looking at your photographic endeavors over the last year, are you satisfied or unsatisfied with your creative progress?

What hinders your improvement? :bang:
What encourages it? :angel:

 

[kmack]

I am very satisfied. My focus this last year has been more on the technical side. Finding the film developer combo that works for me. learning what my equipment will do. Getting a consistant negative that I can scan well with my equipment. In general "finding my voice" so to speak.

This next year I hope to improve with practice and better my eye. Learn to compose a shot better, learn to find the interesting.

In April it will be one year since I joined RFF. The information and insite I found on this site assisted me greatly. Thanks All.

 

[varjag]

I am satisfied. The progress is slow but apparent. I ended up with three shots that finally explained myself what my style is and in which direction should I work.

Hindrances? I could talk endlessly about film brands I miss, lenses or cameras I'd love to have, but seriously none of that is a serious obstacle. Not spending enough time outside - maybe.

Encouragements: good work of other photographers', and an absolutely marvellous book I've read on 'seeing' photography, "Fotografia kak.." by A. Lapin. Unfortunately it is in Russian, otherwise I could recommend it as a must read.

 

[JimG]

Spending 5 hours a day 4 days a week printing and developing has made a differance. And with the help of my Austrian photography teacher who keeps telling me "Good, now to it better."

 

[reagan]

I'm satisfied with seeing more creative opportunities, finding ways to minimize the distractions that hurt my concentration. I'm very happy with the gear I've accumulated and feel quite content that I have what I need to produce the kind of work I will enjoy for a long time.

Occasionally partaking in other creative choices, writing, tinkering, etc, helps the juices flow later when I'm out with a camera. Stress is a creative killer. Minimizing that helps make maximum use of the short periods when I get to relax and take a few shots.

 

[Andy K]

I am very satisfied with my progress. In the last year I have moved on from developing and scanning to setting up a wet darkroom and learning to enlarge my negs properly, learning about different papers, chemicals and toners etc.. I am learning more about enlarging every day, even though I doubt I will ever know everything about the darkroom I plan on giving it a damn good try!

 

[kaiyen]

Andy,
You shifted to a wet darkroom only this past year? I never would've guessed it from your posts here and on apug (not derogatory in any way - just honest surprise).

I don't know if I've improved, to be honest. Everytime I think I've been doing better I see the work of others and I am discouraged. A colleague just had work in a show that was part of a juried class. I don't know if I would've made it into the class.

At the same time, the one and only image I"ve ever taken that I will declare that I love without regard to others' opinons was taken just a few months ago. I guess it's meaningful that I have gotten to that point, where I have gotten at least _one_ image that I am unequivocally proud of.

allan

 

[Andy K]

I guess 'shifted to' isn't the correct description. Previously I would get enlargements made at a lab after looking at the negs under a loupe and choosing those I wanted enlarged. I set up my own darkroom about 11 months ago now. I have been developing film using a changing bag and tank for a long time. The scanner I have has facility for scanning negs (3 frames at a time) and slides (two at a time), but is slow, so I rarely used it.

 

[reagan]

"I don't know if I've improved, to be honest. Everytime I think I've been doing better I see the work of others and I am discouraged."

In my younger days, I once took a several week lone-wolf vacation traipsing around AZ, NM, CO with a pickup full of camping gear, a daypack and a (one) camera. I spent a good deal of the time hiking through rocky deserts, dry gulches and plateaus observing, enjoying and sometime photographing Native American handi-work in potsherds and art carved into rock faces - interesting stuff to me. But as one aficionado of such things put it, there's no way to really know for certain the meaning of the carvings/engravings, whether they are historical records or just done for the pure pleasure of the artist. "The fact is," he said, "the original meaning of each work was lost forever the moment the artist walked away from the rock."

Allan ~ I enjoy any compliments I get from others. But what each photo means to me personally, uniquely is what I enjoy the most. Your work can never mean as much to others as it does to you. Even if they really, really love it, they can’t love it in the same way as you. You created it, participated in it, own it. All others who look on can be no more than spectators that came along after the fact. Only the photog who created them can measure the true meaning and value of your photos. So enjoy your work as it’s unique creator/owner. Measure the good ones by the message they send to you and measure the bad ones by what you learn from them that improves all others afterward.

 

[jonasv]

It's only a year ago since I got interested in photography and actively started taking pictures.. It's less a year ago I bought my first film camera... So, I'd have to say I've improved since I was starting from scratch - and I hope I have at least reached something by now!

Especially the last two months it has been going quickly forward in my opinion. Before that, I followed courses, evening school photography, and what-not, but honestly it was all a waste of time. Since I started working for the university paper I'm really happy with the progress I'm making. I'm sure there's a lot of work to be done before I'll actually be happy with my own images, but as of now I'm quite content with how I'm improving now...

 

[PeterL]

I've engaged in photography in a few ways that I haven't done before. I shot a friend's wedding, which was in two parts. The first part, I took a motor drive and a flash and I was nervous. For the second part, I took one body and a 50/f1.4 and said to myself: I'm going to have fun, there'll be some photos taken, part by me, part by others, and we'll see what comes out of it. The results were much better than what I got out of the first part.

So I learned a valuable lesson: I should have fun. Automatically, my photos look better. So nowadays I'm trying to get a feeling of the atmosphere of a place and go with the flow instead of trying something special.

Are my photos better ? I shot a few that I like, but then I looked back at my photos from 3 years ago and they're not bad either. I've never shot a photo that made me go -wow- that's what I took up photography for-, and I don't think I ever will. I'm happy if I catch a good moment in a good way, and if the photo shows what I felt at that moment. And I'm happy if other people are happy. I've got very little ambition except to pick out a few moments. But I do get the impression that this year, I'm starting to learn how to pick out those moments in people shots, which feels good.

Peter.

 

[reagan]

I'm happy if I catch a good moment in a good way, and if the photo shows what I felt at that moment. And I'm happy if other people are happy. I've got very little ambition except to pick out a few moments. But I do get the impression that this year, I'm starting to learn how to pick out those moments in people shots, which feels good.

Well stated Peter. That pretty much sums up my feelings as well, especially "if the photo shows what I felt at the moment."

One part of "getting the people shots" for me was to work on how I felt about myself when photographing others. Basically, and I know this sounds weird, but I had to learn to give myself permission to put the camera in their face and take the shot. I've always overcompensated when worrying about how others felt about what I was doing, so I just always assumed they didn't want to be bothered by me and a camera. But the truth is, most folks don't give a rip and only give it a passing thought when you take their picture.

The other truth is, (and maybe more importantly) this is what I do to relax, to enjoy, to create so it's a huge part of who I am. If it does happen to annoy a few of them, I've learned they can just get over it just like I'll get over them being annoyed. And yeah, I actually had to learn that. Ha!! Anyway, so that's made taking photos of people more relaxed for me and as you said, "more fun."