Trying too hard?

[PeterW]

Hi,

For the past five or six evenings I've been going through boxes and folders of my old black and white negs taken 20 or 30 years ago, many of which I'd forgotten about, looking at them on the lightbox to see what was worth scanning in or maybe printing. They were all pictures taken just for fun, not for publication.

I found I was constantly thinking 'no, not that one', or 'not much of a picture in that' until after going through about a couple of hundred I'd picked out only a dozen or so.

I was thinking surely I can't have been all that bad a photographer in those days when I was out with a camera just shooting whatever took my fancy. So I went through some of them again and realised that no, they may not have been great pictures by any stretch of the imagination, but they brought back a lot of memories of holidays, weekend drives in the car, days in the country or on the beach. And above all, at the time they were fun to take.

Nowadays I might go out for a day with a camera and come back with only four or five shots because I'd looked through the viewfinder and thought either I couldn't see a good composition, or the lighting wasn't interesting, or something wasn't quite right, so I didn't take the picture. Twenty years ago I would probably have shot off a roll or a maybe two rolls. Not just being snaphappy, but taking a lot of things that I thought at the time looked interesting.

I'm wondering if nowadays I'm just getting too darn fussy. Spending too long seeking the Holy Grail, looking for the Great Auk's egg, and missing out on a lot of the fun I used to get just taking pictures.

I've decided that from now on I want to put the Phun back into Photography! Anybody else been through this phase?

Peter

[sinedyar]

Hi, Peter:

Yes, and no. :-)

I have also been looking for the "Holy Grail" in my photography. And although I've improved greatly over the years, I've never gotten there, at least in my opinion. As I improve, I continue to want to get better. :-)

I like looking at my old photos to see how well I have improved, but at the same time know that if I work hard enough and continue to learn, that I will get better still.

However, it is still all fun for me. The taking of pictures, the improvement, the learning, the traveling, is all fun. If I found it not fun any longer I'd quit! I may never get to that "perfect" photo, but I have fun trying.

Denis

[Rachel]

When I go through my boxes of old D&P I don't find m(any) masterpieces but lots of good memories ......

[kamera]

Peter,

You learn and improve over the years with constant shooting practice. Many of those old photographs have contributed to just the academic phase, but probably more important are the memories they bring back when you look at them years later.

I still tend to shoot a lot of film, but save only a few when I scrutinize the prints. Folks at the mini labs do not understand why I would refuse to get a CD of the film. But I get a lot of throwaways just shooting, I save the ones I want and put the good ones on CD myself.

Ron Head
Kalamazoo, MI

[John Parry]

Hi Peter

I tend to blast away - not just because the ones that work best are often the ones
you think won't (if I relied on first impressions I would miss those), but also in the
hopes of getting a few in focus!!!

Regards - John

[herron]

Peter:
I still shoot a lot of film that eventually goes nowhere but the trash bin, but I keep just about everything with a person in it!

I'm still looking for that Great Auk's egg, too (Gee, I love that line!) but realize now that the memories of time spent with family and friends can be just as important from the image you almost didn't keep.

[PeterW]

Thanks everyone for the encouragement. I think maybe I've been trying too hard and suffering from a touch of 'photographer's block'. I'll get over it pretty soon; maybe after a roll or so of seeing a picture and just taking it. A touch more spontaneity. I seem to remember an old phrase "six from 36 isn't a bad average". I'll still keep an eye on viewpoint, composition and light direction though, they're rather ingrained.

Peter

[lulalake]

peterw said:

Thanks everyone for the encouragement. I think maybe I've been trying too hard and suffering from a touch of 'photographer's block'. I'll get over it pretty soon; maybe after a roll or so of seeing a picture and just taking it. A touch more spontaneity. I seem to remember an old phrase "six from 36 isn't a bad average". I'll still keep an eye on viewpoint, composition and light direction though, they're rather ingrained.

Peter

Hi Peter,
What I've been doing lately is CROPPING!. I have, like everybody here, lots of pics that are far less than perfect but I remembered that when I took them there was some element in the image that I felt was worth the time to take the pic.

I would suggest that you take 5 or 10, scan them in, (Good scans) and start with the digital scissors. I've saved quite a few that way and come up with some shots that were at least acceptable to me.

Here's a pretty healthy crop from a so-so pic that came out acceptable:



Even if you don't find any keepers it's great fun to go over old pics to sus out what it was that made you take that picture.

Cheers

Jules

[PeterW]

That's more than just acceptable, Jules. I used to go to jazz clubs quite a lot years ago; Humph's, Ronnie Scott's and so on. That picture brings back the atmosphere, and I want to hear what that jazzman was playing. I've got loads of recordings, but you can't beat going and listening to live playing.

Created from what you describe as a 'so-so pic'! I'm encouraged to go back and take another look at a lot of my shots even though I didn't take any in jazz clubs, more's the pity!.

Thanks for showing it,

Peter

[lulalake]

peterw said:

That's more than just acceptable, Jules. I used to go to jazz clubs quite a lot years ago; Humph's, Ronnie Scott's and so on. That picture brings back the atmosphere, and I want to hear what that jazzman was playing. I've got loads of recordings, but you can't beat going and listening to live playing.

Created from what you describe as a 'so-so pic'! I'm encouraged to go back and take another look at a lot of my shots even though I didn't take any in jazz clubs, more's the pity!.

Thanks for showing it,

Peter

Thanks Peter,
Short story. I live in South Central Texas USA, in a small college town. This shot was taken there. There seems to be a major revival in big band music going on. There is a new club in town in the basement of an old building, a larger club, very nice, clean, and with a very “up” atmosphere.

The night that I took this, a new big band was playing “String of Pearls” and they were HOT. I saw a 20something barmaid going across the floor with a tray of drinks slowly stop in front of me and open mouthed stare at the band for a few minutes. She turned to me and said “What is this music? “ This young woman had never heard this music before, live or otherwise, and was completely amazed by it. It gave me great heart, and I was happy to tell her that it wasn’t new, not by a long shot.

Perhaps you might go pub crawling with your camera. I’m going to be in London over the Holidays visiting a daughter there and I certainly will be shooting!

Cheers

Jules