When do you begin to appreciate your work?

[arcooke]

I run out of things to photograph around here also because you can only take so many photo's of trees, ground, and land!!! I live in the country so no more flowers till spring, no snow, and nothing interesting not even red birds any more!!!Ughhh!!

Wrong. There's plenty to take pictures of, you're just not seeing them.

Go draw a spiral in the dirt. Everything dead? Find one thing that's still alive and use that as your subject. Got a fence? Go look for some nice looking knots in the wood. You live in the country, so you probably have a dark sky.. take some long exposure shots of the sky. Try shooting water drops in your kitchen. A spilled cup of milk.

There's plenty out there. Just look around

 

[white]

When I do stuff like this I'll be happy.

 

[MSnowy]

If your selling any of your pictures or shooting for a fee, then I would hope that you appreciate your work, or else your cheating your customers/clients out of their money.

 

[GeorgieGirl]

Well the good thing about 'working here' is that many will challenge you to keep the bar high, and that can be an excellent task master.

There is a difference between your work/pix suck and others work whose pix suck. You might just need to step back and recognize the difference between the talented and the ordinary and then take it a step further that even with talent comes plenty of practice to keep up with it so it is fresh and improved.

Question for you Mo...what has to happen that will you think your work is good? When its gotten good even though its not consistent? Or does it have to be consistently good to be good? Would that then not be great work rather than good work?

 

[kasperjd4]

I started to appreciate my photography when I would look at it and be like "crap that's a good photograph, I wonder who took it." and then realize that it's my own photo and I had no idea it looked like that. It only happens once in a while but those days I am soooooooo high on life.

 

[kundalini]

I finally printed some of my stuff for Xmas gifts at 16x20". The recipients were well impressed. Very tactile feeling. I was impressed with myself as well for seeing my stuff mounted on a wall. 2011 will see more printing.

 

[MohaimenK]

If your selling any of your pictures or shooting for a fee, then I would hope that you appreciate your work, or else your cheating your customers/clients out of their money.

Not true. Like mentioned above, many people will/might like your pictures and are happy with your work but that doesn't mean you are 100%. We judge pictures one way and then there are the general public that view them in a much different way.

Question for you Mo...what has to happen that will you think your work is good? When its gotten good even though its not consistent? Or does it have to be consistently good to be good? Would that then not be great work rather than good work?

I don't know, I'll be happy when I see my work and compare it to other professional wedding photographers and see similarities, that's when I'll be content. I guess I have a list of photographers whose work I admire. If I can do similar, I'll be content.

 

[Josh66]

I think I was better a few years ago than I am now.

It may just be that I don't take pictures as much, and the ones I do take are mostly snap-shots (I guess kids will do that to you, lol) ... but all of my best stuff is from like 2 years ago.

These days, I maybe take one "good" picture a month. Sometimes only once every two months.

When I will think that I have 'made it' is when I can look back on my better stuff and do that or better all the time. Then the process will start over.

 

[flea77]

If your selling any of your pictures or shooting for a fee, then I would hope that you appreciate your work, or else your cheating your customers/clients out of their money.

I completely disagree. I see things in my work a client would never notice. Besides, clients hire you based on your portfolio and as long as you deliver equal quality to that they should be happy.

Allan

 

[vtf]

MO, as long as your wife is in the shots, you can call yourself a fantastic photographer:thumbup:

 

[12sndsgood]

you may never feel your pics are good enough. you want a certain part of that though to keep pushing yourselves. what i felt was a great pic a few months ago i look back on and start seeing issues that i didnt realise. so i just try to remember them for the next time to improve. for the most part we are generally more critical of our art then others are. because you look so hard to find the flaws so you can improve. just take some time to enjoy your pictures for what they are on occasion so that you can still enjoy it.

 

[MohaimenK]

MO, as long as your wife is in the shots, you can call yourself a fantastic photographer:thumbup:

LMAO!!! :thumbup:

 

[c.cloudwalker]

What do you expect after only 6 months? Frankly, I think you are doing quite well for that short a time. I had 3 years of photography before I decided to try and go pro. And I didn't sell anything for 8 months

But even today, with 25+ years in the business, I'm not always happy with my work. Everyone has good days and bad days...

Your work will be good when, on a bad day, you still get very usable images. And by that I mean images that are at least as good as everything in your portfolio.

Now, that only applies to commercial (or retail) work. Fine art is a totally different story

The biggest problem is to reach a level where you can repeatedly deliver a usable product. Everyone can luck out a great image but, to deliver a constant level of quality, you need knowledge. This level of quality will change as time passes and you learn more and that is why...

I found that the more I do this, the less I think my work sucks and the more I know it sucks. Bummer

No bummer here. This is a very normal step in the learning cycle. The more you know the more you realize how little you know. And that is a good thing. But you keep going and, one day, you will not suck so much. And the next day, you may actually be good.

No one who is any good has not gone through that. And you may actually repeat this step a few times during a career.

If your selling any of your pictures or shooting for a fee, then I would hope that you appreciate your work, or else your cheating your customers/clients out of their money.

Along with others, I totally disagree with this. So long as you deliver a product equal to or better than your portfolio, you are not cheating anyone. And I'll include wedding photogs who bought their first camera 6 weeks ago and turned pro 4 weeks ago.

I think I was better a few years ago than I am now.

It may just be that I don't take pictures as much, and the ones I do take are mostly snap-shots (I guess kids will do that to you, lol) ...

Sorry Josh but I disagree with this too. Maybe you are still learning, maybe you are in the valley of shadows right now but either or you will reach a point when taking snapshots will result in very nice photos because you know enough technically to never again take a snapshot... whether you think about it or not. Eventually, when you have the technical aspect down, there will be no more snapshots.

 

[MohaimenK]

thanks! you know what I don't have? the eyes to see things! I think I need vision. I need to be somewhere and could be anywhere and just know what to take pictures of. That's what I'm missing! What's the best way to go about this? I thought of going out and practicing on the streets? Take different shots?

 

[flea77]

thanks! you know what I don't have? the eyes to see things! I think I need vision. I need to be somewhere and could be anywhere and just know what to take pictures of. That's what I'm missing! What's the best way to go about this? I thought of going out and practicing on the streets? Take different shots?

One suggestion I heard that sounds interesting is to lock yourself in your bathroom with one lens, do not come out until you have five GOOD images.

Allan

PS. Might want to take some food in with you just in case it takes a while, heh.