First things first: I have been taking photos for maybe close to 30 years. I had a 110 when I was a kid, and I got a Pentax K1000 in 1984. I finally upgraded to digital around 2003 with a Fuji FinePix. I got my Canon Eos Rebel XTi a few years later. So WHY ARE MY PHOTOS SO BAD? I know that far too many of my photos are taken from a moving car, that lends to their craptastic look. It is a rare occasion that I get to stop and really focus on taking photos outside the car. But even the photos that I try my hardest on just don't come out looking like I want them to.
I have never taken any classes on photography, everything I ever learned about how to take photos has been from trial and error or trying something I read on the internet. Somehow I think maybe I am just not getting the settings right for the situations. The colors never look right, buildings are blurry, or crooked, and I just can't ever get any to look like the many, many awesome photos I see on Flickr.
Maybe it's the post-processing. I used to have Photoshop, it was 4.0 and it is now on a old computer(I got it from a friend who got it from a friend-so I don't actually have the disks) and I can't afford to buy the new one. So I am using PhotoScape. I like it, it is pretty easy to use, but maybe that's the problem. My photos never look sharp enough. So I sharpen them and then they look too busy and messy. I just can't win.
And some joe who just bought a smartphone and has never taken a photo snaps a shot of an old building and it gets a million views and comments and I bust my butt taking millions of photos and I get nada. Squat.
Do I need to do more promotion? Add more photos to groups? Start 3 more blogs? Twitter link every single photo? Or do I need to just face the fact that even though photography is my one true love, I just don't have the chops and give up being good at it, forget everyone else, and just keep doing it for myself(which is what I've done for 30 years now)??
And one quick question for any photogs out there-how often do you use a tripod? I have one but I just don't use it often unless it is low light or a waterfall. Maybe that is my problem.
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Now to my second problem. I don't get out much. It's sort of a personal problem that I won't bother getting into now, and it's sort of a money problem. When my kiddo was small, and DH had a much better job, we would take day trips around the back roads of Tennessee almost every other weekend and longer trips every couple of months. More than 10 years later and the situation is quite different. Long trips are virtually a thing of the past and day trips happen maybe once every six months.When I finally get to hit the road now, we tend to try to see as many places as possible in the shortest amount of time possible. This leads to seeing lots and lots of places, but not intimately, and ultimately it leads to missing loads of places too. If I had a nickle for every time I shouted "oooh that place looked cool!"(as we speed on down the road), well I could probably afford to road trip more often. This also leads to the multitudes of "photos taken from the car" that are nice for memories but are craptastic for displaying.
So I don't really know what to do here. We could continue the marathon "omg-we-hit-15-counties-and-three-states-in-12-hours!" road trips. They are fun and like I said it leads to seeing SO many places! Or should I slow down and start picking a destination, a place, a city, a county; research it and then head out and explore it fully. I don't have a laptop or a smartphone so all research has to be done before leaving the house(I know, it sucks). And usually when we stop somewhere I am the only one who gets out to investigate and take photos, the rest of the family usually isn't interested.
Maybe I should start taking these road trips alone? That really isn't safe, but at least then I could stop exactly when and where I want to take photos. I have no problems pulling over and turning around when I am driving and see something I like. Or maybe I should just take what I can get. I'm not getting any younger, DH says he wants to spend time with me but like I said, he isn't really interested in seeing these places. But I have a serious genetic case of wanderlust; I get severely depressed when I haven't even left the house for a month; and I have a horrible addiction to old and abandoned places(but I never trespass). Anyhoo....
If anyone has any thoughts or advice, I would really really appreciate it-especially the photography advice. I want to at least be a good photographer. I just wanna be liked for something.
(ps. I do get many views-though few comments-on my Lego photos. I love doing them, so maybe I can do something right, but they aren't my first love and I can't get away from that.)
2 comments:
Hi. I don't know if I can really give you any advise, except to say that good photos are mostly about the "vision" that the photographer has in mind when taking a photo. Not to say that you have no "vision" when taking pictures, but I have found that many of the "good" photos that I taken were the ones that I saw before I took them. Maybe that sounds nuts, but it is true. I have an old Sony Mavica FD95 (2.0 MP) that I use all the time. At 2 mega pixels, the photos I take do not have the "wow" effect of a 12 MP camera, but they do (on many occasions) draw comments on how good they are.
I have studied some on photography. I have Photoshop 8. Learned a bit about F stop, shutter speed, film speed, resolution, and more. In all, I learned that the more I knew, the harder it was to get a "good" picture. With knowledge came judgement. Judgement brought on hesitation. Hesitation lost the "good" photo.
There is a time and a place for a photo to be technical. Is there enough ambient light? Is the camera angle correct? Does the subject matter appear blurry? Do I need a monopod?, etc. Then there is a time to take the photo when the vision appears. Never mind the technical details. A decent digital camera takes care of that for the most part anyway.
You have taken many, many photos. You know what you like, and by now you know what will work and what won't. Like I said earlier, I don't know if I can give you any advise, but I hope that what I wrote may be something worth considering.
Thanks so much for the comments! I appreciate anything coming from a fellow photog. I think I might far too in my head for my own good. My kid tells me the same thing-she says most artists aren't always satisfied with their own work, as if it will never live up to the ones I admire. I need to get out of my head and just snap away, like you said!
I think much of my problem is not having enough of an opportunity to get the shots I want. Unfortunately many of my photos get taken from the car at high speed(because we don't have "time" to stop everywhere I want to stop-whatever), but that's a personal problem that maybe someday in the future I'll be able to relax and spend the time at the places I want and take all the dam photos I want!
I probably ranted more than was necessary in my original post, but it does get frustrating to see many what I think are mediocre photos get so much attention and the ones I took that I think are awesome get little to none. Gotta get out of my head, not care about who likes what except if it makes me happy! I suppose that's all that really matters anyway-not like I'm trying to get a job or anything! Haha
Thanks again!
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