ARRRRRggghhh!!!

[chris82]

Ok,Is it just me or do I suck at photography?(Dont answer that)!So Last night while fuled with lots of carlsberg I thought about how much quality there was in some of the new to photography members there is on here and I said to myself "nomatter what,rain,hail,sleet or snow Ill go out with my camera tomorrow so I did and the powers that be said...HA HA HA!Then it rained all day long...but I said screw you powers that be I have the camera of destiny in my hand!Ok ok Im ranting,the point is I took a lot of shots at the top of a mountain inspite of the rain.Hoping to get some atmospheric misty kind of shots but when I got home there wasent one shot wourth or werth (I duno)keeping and I realised That not only do I suck at getting the settings right but also my composition sucks aswell!Can this be fixed or does it come in time,Or should I just go back to taking pics on my phone?

 

[Aquarium Dreams]

DON'T QUIT!

Everyone has days where they feel they suck, and everyone has shoots that are disappointing. It's only through practice and perseverance that you can minimize those instances.

You said you were going to go out shooting, no matter what, and despite the weather, you stuck to your plan and went out shooting anyway. That takes discipline and passion. So this time you were disappointed, but maybe next time you stick to your plan and go out when the weather's bad, it will pay off. Sometimes it's the act of shooting that matters most, not the result. You could go out shooting, have a great time, and at the end of the day, drop your camera off the side of a boat into the ocean -- it happened to someone on this forum, and that person still goes out shooting. Sometimes it takes a while to get over being upset, but the adage of "Getting back on the horse," comes to mind.

If you compare yourself to others, you'll find that there are always people better. I look at it as something to aspire to, so I gain inspiration from people who are better or more creative than me. Sometimes it gets me down; I think everyone gives into it on occasion.

If I may say so, it sounds like your day sucked. It was just a day, maybe even a series of days, but it's not you. You need to have a little attitude about it. I say, "I don't care if I suck, because I enjoy it. I'm doing my best, and if other people think I suck, it's their problem." (Okay, to be honest, I'm not usually that cocky, but it helps sometimes.)

 

[abraxas]

DON'T QUIT!

"Sometimes it all comes together, sometimes you lose it all."
-Dire Straits

You've done some good work in the past. I can't think of any reason why you'd flatline forever from a dull spot. Keep trying.

 

[Alex_B]

I think you are just trying to get the perfect image by brute force ...

... and atmospheric shots in the rain is not easy ... and 80% of all rain-scenes are rather dull .. and so will the images be. We all have these moments when we fail. At the beginning it is most of the time actually, and later it gets less. It sometimes comes in steps and sometimes it just comes a slow and smooth gradient which you do not realise.

And sometimes you feel like you totally lost your abilits to take any decent image.

If your composition often sucks, and you realise when you sit at your computer. Then do some rotating and cropping, try to improve your composition. In the end the image that comes ot of this might only have half or even only a tenth of pixels the original from the camera might have, but it is not about that image, but about the learning process. Later, in a similar shooting situation you might remember how you cropped at home on the computer, and you might get the frame better.

 

[Alex_B]

oh, and I also have those moments, days, or even weeks where I think I should just dump my camera in the next river ... or just jump myself ...

 

[Torus34]

Though I usually hate comparisons with the world of sports, in this case you might want to check out Babe Ruth's record. Note two things: the number of home runs and the number of times he struck out.

 

[LaFoto]

Awww, Chris.
Seems like you are going through a kind of artisic depression right now. You'll get out of it as soon as spring will spring more and you get some decent weather.

Keep in mind that photo-graphy literally means "writing with light", so what will you "write" when there is next to no light to really "write" with!?!?

The Powers That Be were against you.
You were deadset to go out and take photos.
That may be passion, as AquariumDreams is pointing out, and I agree, but it may also show that you tried to force something, no matter what.

When I feel I haven't touched the camera for days, even weeks, and I feel that "this must come to an end, NOW, I'll go out and take photos!" *stomp foot* ... the outcome will look as forced as the situation was. Unless there suddenly is a hole in the clouds and some wonderful light illuminates the countryside, or some surprising scene suddenly opens up before my eyes, my photos won't be good.

It has happened to me ever so often!!
I then think to myself: "Oh well, you tried to force it, it cannot have been any good". Leave this recent past behind as all past and look into the future.

It is March. The grey skies will end.
There will be sun.
Light.
Colours.
Life.

And you'll find your motifs, your scenes, and your PHOTOGRAPHY!
I am so sure. You will. Give it time, give your photographic development time, but don't give UP!

 

[Garbz]

While in Neuchatel in Swizerland I decided to take a daytrip to Luzern, not taken lightly seeing how the trip cost me 90 CHF. Anyway got there, cloudy, rainy, 400 shorts, not one worth keeping. Well I realised I wanted 1 good shot before I left so I waited till dusk and after the sunset, but before it got dark I found that one good shot. http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=73423.

When I got back to Australia I heard a lot about someone bragging about knowing an amature photographer who is much better than me who shoots on a much cheaper camera and has taken hundreds of fantastic. Well yeah I bought this camera because I wanted image quality so I'll seek photo quality later.

That night I went to dinner with a friend camera at home. The sun set behind a beautiful storm cloud, no camera . An hour later a possum ran along the fence railing with a bay possum on its back, no camera.

I have now come to the realisation that good photography is as much to do with luck as skill. It takes skill to take a good photo, but it takes luck to find something worth photographing, and the reason this so called awesome amature is so awesome is that her compact digicam never leaves her pocket.

 

[Alex_B]

When I got back to Australia I heard a lot about someone bragging about knowing an amature photographer who is much better than me who shoots on a much cheaper camera and has taken hundreds of fantastic.

It is so much easier to produce ahh-and-oooh-outdoor-images in sunny Australia than in rainy Ireland or Central and Northern Europe... at least this holds true for 300 days of the year

But once you mastered rainy Europe, most other things are a piece of cake

 

[dewey]

Photography is like fishing... if I always got great shots out of every trip I'd be a little bored.

 

[Garbz]

It is so much easier to produce ahh-and-oooh-outdoor-images in sunny Australia than in rainy Ireland or Central and Northern Europe... at least this holds true for 300 days of the year

But once you mastered rainy Europe, most other things are a piece of cake

As a fellow european I know exactly what you mean lol.