low and behold, they were terrible, strange, "what the HELL was I thinking?" bad.
I've gone through a great shift with my photography over the last year, with my subjective concerns (from the natural landscape to public spaces) and significantly in terms of my aesthetic sensibilities. I have a problem keeping productive and to an extent, forget that actually learning to work (or see) in a new way requires some consistency. I've upended my photographic concerns so much, that I've almost had to start again from the ground up.
Two out of three weddings in Britain end in divorce, I've often thought it would be more profitable to photograph divorces
You can imagine the downer then when I actually see them and they aren't anything like I imagined.
This rollercoaster of emotions is becoming a little too much, perhaps even having an affect on my mental health. I haven't made a single picture I've been happy with for over a year and I can't stop beating myself up about it. Has anyone else had such a long span of fruitless results? I'm incredibly hard on myself with photography, but it's getting a bit silly. I've forgotten how to just enjoy it, it's like my life depends on every image I make.
If it is possible and you can find a lab prepared to print only the negs you want to be printed then there is a good case for home film processing where only a changing bag or lightproof cupboard is needed.
Constantly switching from the square to the 67 brings its own set of issues too, which aren't helping my growth as an image maker.
Umm, I doubt that.
To be blunt IMO "artistically" that's nonsense, great photos can be made in any format. Format only becomes important when the paper (output size) is defined before the shoot or the subject itself defines it and even then it is only a marginal concern.
That may be key to your troubles, broken camera shutter or not. And I don't want to imply inexperience with the new subject matter, but instead the question whether the new subject matter touches you emotionally as much as natural landscapes. I know from personal experience that I won't ever enlarge a single negative that I shot "because I should take at least some pictures when I'm already here", regardless of how much effort I put into composition, lighting and whatnot. Just looking at these negs in the dark room makes me almost sick.I've gone through a great shift with my photography over the last year, with my subjective concerns (from the natural landscape to public spaces) and significantly in terms of my aesthetic sensibilities.
That may be key to your troubles, broken camera shutter or not. And I don't want to imply inexperience with the new subject matter, but instead the question whether the new subject matter touches you emotionally as much as natural landscapes. I know from personal experience that I won't ever enlarge a single negative that I shot "because I should take at least some pictures when I'm already here", regardless of how much effort I put into composition, lighting and whatnot. Just looking at these negs in the dark room makes me almost sick.
My take at this is: if you see (or sense) a true realisation of something great, then you see a goal (or at least something to aim for) ahead of you and will be ready to spend all the effort it takes to reach it. I don't believe in images that just happen to effortlessly fly into your camera and through the enlarger onto the paper.I suppose when there's a true realisation of something great, you know it before the act, and don't have to kid yourself afterwards.
Thinking of the Pentax as a 'Super SLR' though, it's a very different beast to the Hasselblad. If the 'Blad is a Rolls Royce, the Pentax is a Ford Mustang. You just wouldn't drive them the same way - or even on the same roads!
Umm... yes, and yes.<snip> Are you going to let your car define where you go or let your driving needs define the car you pick? <snip>
Umm... yes, and yes.<snip> Are you going to let your car define where you go or let your driving needs define the car you pick? <snip>
Well slap me silly and call me Judy ... Old-N-Feeble agrees with me. [All fun intended. This is not a negative [pun intended] reflection on O-N-F]
When I started with the Pentax 6x7, it was after having used a Mamiya RZ67 for a year, so the frame size and aspect ratio was something I was used to. But I was using only the waist level finder with the Mamiya, and of course the prism finder for the Pentax. I think this has had an influence on the photographs of people, because of the way of interacting with the subject, the height of the camera etc. So far I enjoy the Pentax, though, for field work and hikes. If you have had the camera for a long time, and the decline in results is something that has happened suddenly, then I think you have to think about whether there is something else distracting you. Maybe work, family or social life. Maybe you are a bit depressed and you do not realise it. That will definitely influence the way in which you look at your photographs. But I am not a psychologist, just noting that you sound a bit strung. What helps for me at times, is to stop all forms of photography and photographic reading / learning, for a couple of weeks. Stay away from all the forums you frequent, stash your photo gear away, close the books and put them into the book shelf. Then go around, and LOOK at the world without photographing it. Ask yourself what things you like in the world around you, what you find interesting, what reflects what you are aware of in yourself. Simply be aware of your world and your response to it. Then after two or three weeks, go and photograph those things that moved you.
I find that when I photograph my children in a non-intrusive sort of way, it almost always breaks the ice for me. It is not that the photos are necessarily great, but the fact that I enjoy seeing the results none the less, makes the effort worthwhile. Eventually, when I get the opportunity to photograph other things, I have a positive mindset. I should also add that I seldom shoot CN film on my Pentax. My BW results tend to please me slightly more on average than the colour negatives. Maybe it is because it is sometimes really difficult to get the colour to gel with all the other elements in an image, while BW is forgiving in that sense.
As a last thought, the only sure way to get no images worth keeping, is to take no images at all. The only way to increase your hit rate, is to practice. The latter must have an element of evaluation / critique and then repeating the effort with the added insight. Just continuing to randomly shoot things without closing the learning loop will probably not help you understand what is wrong with your photographs, which may more be a lack of visualising properly than faulty technique etc.
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