Old (around 2004) shots from California (12 images)

[MarcusM]

I never really have had a critique of my older shots from when I lived in Sacramento, CA when I really started getting into photography and I was really curious to see what people think of them. This was right after I got my first DSLR, my current camera the original EOS Digital Rebel. After looking at these again, some of these are still some of my absolute best shots even compared against my more current shots. Makes me wonder how far I've progressed????!!! C&C appreciated!

San Diego
El Cortez

Bulldog

Convention Center

Sacramento
Governor's mansion

Seal of California

light trails

San Francisco
view of the city

flower near Golden Gate Park

path in Japanese Tea Gardens

Trees in Japanese Tea Garden

flower in SF

street scene

ahhhhhh....I miss California so much...what a beautiful state.

 

[Hobbes]

wow I love the pics of San Francisco! I hope its still as beautiful there now as it was four years ago

 

[MarcusM]

wow I love the pics of San Francisco! I hope its still as beautiful there now as it was four years ago

Thanks for the comment, much appreciated! Yes, I love San Francisco. It's my favorite city by far that I've ever been to. I'm sure it's just as beautiful as when I left it.

Any other feedback on my old photos?

 

[MarcusM]

Bump from the thread graveyard!

Just looking through my posts and forgot about this one - I only got one comment, but wondering what people thought of my old shots from around when I first really got into photography?

Please give me feedback - positive or negative as you want (in the realm of productivity of course)! I can take it!

 

[abraxas]

You have some very nice shots here, and something worth developing. Many of them are into a genre I'm not too interested in, so other than work on and develop your art and judgement, I can't honestly give you any other type of feedback beside, give it hell and do what you feel in you.

Now, you say you don't feel you've improved. Have you given it an effort and worked and studied or relied on it to happen while waiting for someone to tell you how?

 

[MarcusM]

You have some very nice shots here, and something worth developing. Many of them are into a genre I'm not too interested in, so other than work on and develop your art and judgement, I can't honestly give you any other type of feedback beside, give it hell and do what you feel in you.

Now, you say you don't feel you've improved. Have you given it an effort and worked and studied or relied on it to happen while waiting for someone to tell you how?

Thanks for the feedback abraxas - one of the better photographers on here I might add!

I didn't say I don't feel I haven't improved, I just said looking back at them I wonder 'how far' I've progressed? I know (or hope I know) I've improved...it's just weird now to look back at these.

All I've done since then is learn, shoot, read, learn, shoot, read. I've learned tremendous amounts since when I started - sometimes I laugh at old shots I took and think what I would have done differently today!

EDIT - Oh, btw - I don't really have a specific 'genre' that I stick to. I shoot any and everything. I love documenting spectacular scenes and scenery - including portraiture, city shots, night photography and landscape. I have a list a mile long of state and national parks and random places I want to go for landscape shooting - it's just a matter of time and money!

 

[Bifurcator]

Great images! Besides the blown out clouds in #1 and maybe a little dark shrubbery at the Governor's mansion, nothing else to say, except great work! I love the tea-garden trees! Nice.

 

[LaFoto]

You started out with an eye for things, all right, Marcus, and I think these "old" ones do show it (boy, to be thinking that my oldest ones which I still HAVE are from 1975... :roll: ). I quite enjoy the bulldog photo, he sooo looks like he's saying "Don't you DARE take that bone away from me, don't even THINK about it!" Very nice reduction to only just dog and bone and no more.

As a fan of vanishing point photos, something about the Convention Centre photo makes me like it, but there is also something there that throws me off it. It is straight (as the reflection of the glass roof on the floor shows), and yet I feel there is an imbalance there ... could it be that random person in the corner wearing a white shirt and happening to be in a shaft of light even? Or could it be the fact that there was no symmetry to be had, since one part of the building points to the open and outside and the other to the closed and inside?

The tree trunks in the Japanese Garden photos look good to me. However, the flower is a bit dark. That photo could have more "life" with the levels controlled, I think.

All in all I like to let my computer go into screen saver at times, for that is set to slide show, and the slide show goes through my largest photo folder on the second hard drive with thousands of new and also old photos. That is how I am sometimes taken back to long-forgotten photos of mine and I enjoy the feeling of "Hey, I did well even back then" at times. Isn't it nice to know that even earlier photos succeeded and therefore still make you feel good about them today? Is that necessarily a sign of having been stagnant in your development?

 

[MarcusM]

Great images! Besides the blown out clouds in #1 and maybe a little dark shrubbery at the Governor's mansion, nothing else to say, except great work! I love the tea-garden trees! Nice.

Thanks! Yea, this picture would have been stronger if I could have gotten more color out of the sky. At least it wasn't completely blown-out and white-looking. I appreciate the feedback.

You started out with an eye for things, all right, Marcus, and I think these "old" ones do show it (boy, to be thinking that my oldest ones which I still HAVE are from 1975... :roll: ). I quite enjoy the bulldog photo, he sooo looks like he's saying "Don't you DARE take that bone away from me, don't even THINK about it!" Very nice reduction to only just dog and bone and no more.

As a fan of vanishing point photos, something about the Convention Centre photo makes me like it, but there is also something there that throws me off it. It is straight (as the reflection of the glass roof on the floor shows), and yet I feel there is an imbalance there ... could it be that random person in the corner wearing a white shirt and happening to be in a shaft of light even? Or could it be the fact that there was no symmetry to be had, since one part of the building points to the open and outside and the other to the closed and inside?

The tree trunks in the Japanese Garden photos look good to me. However, the flower is a bit dark. That photo could have more "life" with the levels controlled, I think.

All in all I like to let my computer go into screen saver at times, for that is set to slide show, and the slide show goes through my largest photo folder on the second hard drive with thousands of new and also old photos. That is how I am sometimes taken back to long-forgotten photos of mine and I enjoy the feeling of "Hey, I did well even back then" at times. Isn't it nice to know that even earlier photos succeeded and therefore still make you feel good about them today? Is that necessarily a sign of having been stagnant in your development?

Thanks for the feedback. I agree about the flower - I should add that these shots are all "straight out of camera" the only editing was resizing. This was before I ever started editing my photos (of which I still only do minimally). Maybe I will see if I can tweak some of these.

Also I had never noticed that guy in the corner of the convention center shot until just yesterday when I looked at it again. See, I didn't watch out much for things like that back then, but I do now when I compose - so I have improved, I guess!

 

[MissMia]

Thanks for sharing these. I do miss California. I just found a photograph of the El Cortez, back in the 1940s, taken by my grandfather that is similar to your photo. It's neat to see somethings are still the same.

 

[MarcusM]

Thanks for sharing these. I do miss California. I just found a photograph of the El Cortez, back in the 1940s, taken by my grandfather that is similar to your photo. It's neat to see somethings are still the same.

Wow! I'd love to see it if it would be possible for you to scan it and post it here!