The evolution of your personal photography

I started getting serious about taking picture about this time last year, so it's been kind of a 0-60 acceleration this year. I can say for sure that technically I've got better, and nearly to the first point at which I want to be: normal film, normal dev, normal contrast, normal paper, etc. Obviously, my theoretical knowledge is light years ahead of what I knew last year, but that's only a helper to understanding.

I just looked at some earlier pictures I've taken and more recent ones, and what I really need working on is the subjects and composition. I've stuck mostly to wide angles in 35mm, so I think I'll go on a bout of 50mm to think more about composition. I like my MF pics more, not just because of the better quality in the neg, but also because of the WLF square compostion.

Claire Senft said:

It has steadily gone down hill fom there.

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Good one Claire.

Well there are Olympic medals up for grabs in a few weeks. I'm sure that there is a wealth of advice here to accelerate the process. No holding back, it really would put APUG on the map! Of course you must aim for the Silver medal.

The way I feel is that if I never go out and shoot another frame I have so many negatives to print that I could spend the rest of my life in the darkroom.

I was amazed when I got out some of my 120 negs just last night to find that only about a dozen of some 2500 or more were actually printed. I have cases of 4x5's from all along the the west coast of the US that I haven't printed. I put a loupe to them and I can say that I was at least consistent in technique.

Sure I'm disappointed by the companies that are dropping out of the scene but that's the life of the industry. It's just unfortunate that we have to see it. As for large format lenses, I have mostly Red Dot Artars and many Turner Reichs with some various ones like Kodak's. All in all some really fine lenses. I have some Schneider lenses too but like the Artars best. The shutters; Ilex and Betax, Alphax and Rapax and Copal.

In the darkroom I have a Nikon 150 I bought new, older now and extremely well make metal and a Schneider Componon I bought new. I have a 360 Schneider Componon for 8x10. I keep all of these in the best conditions possible because I believe that I should do what someone somewhere did it for my older lenses.

If there is an Analog type photography in the future I will be providing some very nice equipment after I am gone. For me the personal part is a custodian of the tools as well as the images I have done with them.

It's not ego, it's respect for the medium. That's what happens when you reach middle age. I never dreamed when I was younger that I would see myself as a traveler through time. Some of the equipment I have now was old when I was a child. When I see a date on a lens of say 1906 it really takes on a special meaning.

I'm learning how to be less serious about being serious. Letting go, and flowing with what I see around me, rather than constantly striving for better images. Or as athletes sometimes say, 'playing relaxed'.

Gene

"Of course you must aim for the Silver medal."
Baxter

Don't forget, they've removed a lot of silver from the silver medals, they are no longer silver rich. tim

I've shot since I was a kid, and even though I have few images from the early years that I would show anyone, they mean a lot to me and I'm glad I still have them. Over the years I moved from 127 color to 35mm color, where I stayed for many years. About three years ago I started shooting with a stereo camera and love it. Then, about 1 year ago, I developed my first black and white film, which led to a darkroom at home.

I now shoot 6x4.5 and 4x5, and almost no 35mm at all. About %75 of my film use is black and white and rest is color. My color work is almost always in stereo, with the remainder being standard tourist snapshot stuff, while my black and white work is done in the larger formats and is more deliberate.

One thing that has not changed is my attitude toward taking pictures. I never agonized over whether or not to expose, I just exposed if I though it might be interesting. I found that I learned quite a bit from looking at less than fantastic images, and I still shoot that way today. If I see something that might be interesting, I shoot. If I don't like the results, I go back and do it differently, or not. Either way, I have everything that I ever shot. Boxes and boxes and boxes of negs and prints. And yes, I do look back through them from time to time.

I don't print a lot of my negatives, but what I do print hangs only in the house or my office. I have never had any ambition to sell my images, but rather enjoy just shooting for fun. If I like it, it was worth it, if not, it was still fun to shoot. The joys of being a true amateur, %100 for fun, %100 of the time.

Although my formats have changed over time, my style has always been the same, and I'm OK with that. I figure it means that I am doing what I want without outside pressure to follow someone else's' path. My results seem to please me more often as time rolls on, but I don't really worry about it when I only get one good shot out of a roll.

Thanks for asking the question. It was a blast reading everyones' answers.

- Randy

Carol, I've hit rock bottom in the last five years and what I did was turn to my old pastime of writing. I picked up writing in a journal, I fill one a year now. Everything goes into it. I published poems in college and gradually found myself writing poetry again. Soon I realized I had more than enough for a book. I am still writing and have yet to complete the book. I had back surgery and would lay there at three in the morning thinking of all the places I photographed. What I needed was something creative. I know that I can go long periods without photography but I find myself writing or looking at art in books or making simple drawings in my journal. I find that I am less frustrated by the lack of producing a major work of photography that way. Do as much or little that makes you happy. There are more people out there belonging to the "Bottom of the Hill Club" than they would like to admit. Studying art, reading, writing, perfecting or learning to cook, or just taking some time to see how the rest of the World is doing only makes the photography better. A photography teacher once told us that if you want to be a better photographer read literature and study art. You never know what you'll find at the bottom of the hill, maybe a cool lake or river, or a meadow with flowers.

Curt

Interesting thread. I've been taking pictures one way or another for over 50 years - the last couple of years I've shot only 4x5", very few frames, and the best pictures always seem to be those I shoot with a 210 mm lens (in other words, about 1.5x the "standard" focal length, not a focal length I have for any other format).

I started photography for the obvious reason that's evident to any teenaged boy: to meet girls. Pretty-much haven't progressed since.

I started taking photos about 2 1/2 years ago when i noticed that things looked better in black and white.
Looking back my photography has improved greatly in terms of my technical abilities as well as subject matter and the way i think. For me the darkroom work is as important as the actual photos so the possibilities are endless.
I'm now in my first year of a BA in photography and like it very much, but often think about how rare it is to see any really really 'groundbreaking' work, everything seems to be a re-working of something else.

And thats my first post out of the way.

my "personal" photography evolved when i decided to break rules -- i heard they are meant to be broken ...

bjorke said:

I started photography for the obvious reason that's evident to any teenaged boy: to meet girls. Pretty-much haven't progressed since.

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The girls or the photography?

rhiannon said:

I started taking photos about 2 1/2 years ago when i noticed that things looked better in black and white.
Looking back my photography has improved greatly in terms of my technical abilities as well as subject matter and the way i think. For me the darkroom work is as important as the actual photos so the possibilities are endless.
I'm now in my first year of a BA in photography and like it very much, but often think about how rare it is to see any really really 'groundbreaking' work, everything seems to be a re-working of something else.

And thats my first post out of the way.

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Groundbreaking is an interesting concept. Some people do groundbreaking for the sake of being a ....well, a groundbreaker. Someone who looks at pictures my say wow, that's really different. But does that have anything to do with whether it is good or not? I don't know.

I think we do, and probably should, do photography for our own sake, not necessarily whether someone else likes it. During that time we will all metamorphosize into something else. It's just our growth. Sometimes we will be stagnant and other times make great progress. As it should be.

Many on this site complain about the fact that everything is derivitive or boring or whatever. The answer is maybe so what. If you enjoy doing it, do it for the enjoyment.

I play the piano. I don't write new songs and I certainly ain't groundbreaking. I just play stuff thousands of others have played before but I get a lot of enjoyment out of it.

Michael

blansky said:

Groundbreaking is an interesting concept. Some people do groundbreaking for the sake of being a ....well, a groundbreaker. Someone who looks at pictures my say wow, that's really different. But does that have anything to do with whether it is good or not? I don't know.

I think we do, and probably should, do photography for our own sake, not necessarily whether someone else likes it. During that time we will all metamorphosize into something else. It's just our growth. Sometimes we will be stagnant and other times make great progress. As it should be.

Many on this site complain about the fact that everything is derivitive or boring or whatever. The answer is maybe so what. If you enjoy doing it, do it for the enjoyment.

I play the piano. I don't write new songs and I certainly ain't groundbreaking. I just play stuff thousands of others have played before but I get a lot of enjoyment out of it.

Michael

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Well said!

- Randy

My photography has transformed over the years: from SLR to rangefinder, and from film to digital. I've made excursions into panorama, Holga, even B&W, but none have been able to capture me fully. I use them in addition to my regular (digital!) shooting.

somehow I think that rml is not a dedicated film user.

lee\c

I find myself spending more time in the darkroom than out in the field and that is really different for me. I have so much film to print, I decided to try and catch up and also find out what I really like to print. I used to run around shooting anything willy nilly and having a blast but after developing the film I didn't do much with them. Now I am becoming a better printer and learning how to shoot better so I have a better negative. I am also learning what I really like, what I should be out shooting. I can look back and see that I have come a long way but boy do I have a ways to go . The more you know, the more you know you don't know.

lee said:

somehow I think that rml is not a dedicated film user.
lee\c

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Actually he really isn't, and he said it clearly, didn't he ?

bertram

Before Christmas I was simply out shooting with my digital point and shoot. I thought that what I was shooting was fairly cool at the time. At that time my father was getting more and more into b&w work and I felt it was somewhat boring or antiquated. "Who wants b&w when we can have color? This is the 21st century is it not?"

Then Christmas came and my father gave me a 35mm SLR and four rolls of black and white film. He also paid for me to take a introductory b&w course with a woman who lives in the same live/work building as him. We had some basic lessons on the mechanics of the camera and how to shoot then we spent the day shooting. During that day, the instructor, who I had given my website addy to so she could see my work to that point, made a simple comment that changed my whole way of shooting. She said that up to that point, I was shooting strictly in a documentary sense. I wasn't adding anything of myself into the images. That little bit of advice burrowed it's way into my head and took root. I got up early the next day, went out and shot another roll of film with that mindset in full force and then we spent the day developing and printing. It was like night and day really. I could see a very marked improvement in my shooting already.

So now, I have gone from shooting digital color, documentary shots to strictly shooting b&w film, with a far stronger personal presense to them. I know how to develop my own film and do my own printing and toning. All this in only the last 3-4 months. I'm also loving b&w with a passion now. It really suits my prefered imagery (urban/industrial) so much moreso than color in my opinion. I look at my old shots and truthfully, there's only a few that I actually like now. Most just don't do anything for me now.

It's funny to look back now. I almost feel like it was another lifetime ago, like I'm a completely different person now. I just can't wait to see what the next 4 months will bring about.