Back a while I did a road trip to a place called the Northern Rivers in New South Wales, Australia and stayed in a town called Ballina for a week or so before moving on. I've shared photos from that trip before but because some of them were totally shit soa lot of them have sat around unused for a long time.
I keep saying I'm not a good photographer (because it's true) however over the years I've become better at knowing what to look for, framing the shot better and generally doing small attention-to-detail things that have made my shots a little less shit. In this post I'm sharing three photos that I really didn't put much thought into at all...and so they came out shit...way more shit than they would if I took them again today...which I can't because I'm not there where they were taken.
1 - In the image above I was obviously trying to get the colour in the sunset after a storm had rolled through. We'd been driving for many hours and I figured it was a good point to stop and grab a photo, take a walk around and stretch before moving on. There wasn't much to work with other than the clouds and colour but what the fuck was I thinking by framing the shot with the road down the left side...and could I have avoided getting the road marker in the shot on the right side? I'd do things differently now.
2 - The image of the waterfall below was taken at Nightcap National Park where we were hiking for a day. I was standing at the side of a river that fell over the edge of a decent cliff-drop. It was a cool spot that...I just didn't capture very well. Admittedly, I wasn't to know that there was a way better vantage point not too far off which would have given me a semi-decent shot, so I took the picture from where I was and...yeah, it's shit. Even if I'd taken the phot here but from a slightly different angle it would have been better I think. I was told about that other vantage point later that week and I was like...fuck!
3 - This shot was also at Nightcap, a really cool spot where we went for a swim in a series of rockpools. There's something really enjoyable about taking a jungle swim in a rockpool with no other people around...just feels sort of cavemanish. Anyway, what isn't cool is this fucken shot of one of the pools. In my head it seemed like a good idea...probably wasn't though. It's not framed up very well and my camera-dial-twiddling let me down as well. I should really learn what the buttons do one of these days huh?
I have thousands of photos that didn't quite work out to plan and amongst them a few that came out reasonably well. I have improved my camera equipment over the years and taken some with my phone (the cameras on phones are getting pretty good these days) but I can't blame the equipment all the time...it's on me too.
I guess I don't put much importance on being a great photographer; I don't take photos for a living and certainly have no inclination to represent myself as anything but a terrible photographer. It's fun to take some shots now and then though and that's what counts...I don't mind too much that out of thousands of shots I only get a few good ones.
Design and create your ideal life, tomorrow isn't promised - galenkp
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Image(s) in this post are my own
You do realize even your shittiest shitography is way better than most of my non shit shots...
👀😳👀
Nah, probably not but it your comment has spurred me on to take way more shittier photos! 😋
Your photos look good to me...take the first one, the subject was the sunset and it is right smack in the center of the photo lol. When I 'lol', I am not laughing at you or your photography, just that my own is so much worse lol. I'm with you in that I don't place much importance on being a great photographer. I only know that some photos are appealing to the eye and some are unsettling or uninteresting, but I don't know why. I think I'm partial to the pics with the subject off to the side lol.
The rule of thirds is something I heard about a while ago but haven't always applied, although I focus on that now.
Anyway, that road shit was a bit of an impromptu one and with not much to work with but a bit of colour...well, I could have made it more interesting if I'd placed the road differently I think.
That said, it's not like it really matters...and I like to have shit photography now and then so I can post in this community. Lol.
Lol is general, not at you. 😀
The rule of thirds isn't familiar to me. I'm going to check it out, along with the Shit Photography community.
Divide the screen into thirds and align the subject accordingly...something ike that.
Are you too young to remember the old days when you only had a roll of 12 photos and the tragedy when you waited a week for them to be developed only to find that you had 12 photos of your finger?
Well, I'm 54 so yeah I remember using 35mm film and waiting for the prints from the Monday or Fuji store. (I often act 25 and have the intelligence of a 10 year old though.)
Indeed, you seem younger. I'll have to start treating you with the respect your advanced years deserve:)
Lol, respect has to be earned no matter the age of the individual.
Now that is soooo true.
I miss my little Kodak 120. It took some really cool shit photos way back when. It was always with me wherever I went...
It's not the same, but even my phone camera catches a great shot once in a while. I like it when it does that and wonder why they aren't all that good when I seem to do the same thing all the time. I do crop some though, once they are downloaded.
I've seen photos that you've included along the way and to my eyes, a LOT of them were good. I don't know what you are looking for or what your eyes see, but to me it seems you get some great shots.
I was so thankful when the digital abilities came in. I take a lot of photos of the same thing sometime to try to make sure I end up with at least one that is presentable. Then I can just delete the rest.
Thank you, I think some of my photos are ok also, but I certainly don't see myself as a good, or even average, photographer. I just muddle my way through and sometimes it works out. Digital photography is great right? So many failures for that one stupendously average shot...and those bad ones are deleted for ever!
They still are decent photos at first glance. Hell, I learned something just reading the post and comments.
Bit busy at home babysitting with contractors and plumbers, but defintely will be trying out my photos and camera to catch some fall colors around here.
Get behind that camera mate, you'll get good or bad results...now there's a community for all of the above.
That’s the plan.
I saw the introduction post on this community few days ago, but did not get time to respond. Honestly life is pretty challenging these days...but surely will get to my rhythm. ...
Yeah, it's somewhere I can drop my photography from time to time. I don't take it too seriously and am not a "good" photographer so the other communities don't seem like the right place for it.
If these happen to be shit, then I am wondering what u will call mine...😜....I agree u r not good, but exceptional. I alwsys admire your photography skill.
We all operate at different levels and have different likes and dislikes so I guess what's good (or shit) to one is different to the other. This community is designed as a place people don't have to take it all so seriously, to relax and have fun and share photos whether they're great, average or terrible...it's all in the eye of the beholder. For me, if I have fun in the process of taking the shots or find value in the moment I'm content with whatever the photos look like.
There's no judgment of good or bad photos in this community, it's all just shit photography...even if it's good. 😊
I cringe every time he says he has a lot of poorly focused and poorly framed photos...and there they are beautiful...there is certainly something we should not overlook, and that is the sense he has of the optics of the beauty of each place he visits.
You can have just a crappy phone and the photos will look good man.
Phones do a good job of taking photos these days, they're more cameras than phones I guess. I use both though, my camera and phone and tend to point and click the button hoping I did it right. Someday I'll learn some more about it but I don't think I'll ever take it all that seriously, there's more important things to think about.
Maybe at another time in your life it can become a more serious hobby, who knows?
Well, there's not a lot of it left, few years in front than are already behind, so I'd better hurry I up suppose.
Goodness gracious, we have enough left!!!!!!
Hi Galen, sorry to disappoint you but I think they are not such terrible photos.
I take this opportunity to tell you that the idea of a community on Hive dedicated to those of us who do take terrible photos seemed to me a great idea💡.
I'm also one of those who take photos that I don't publish, some I keep, most of them end up in the trash. Maybe it could be time to show the world how bad a photographer you can be, and maybe seeing my photos will make you appreciate yours more. I don't think so though.
Lol...I'm not disappointed, instead I'm happy you like them.
I'm also glad you like the community idea. I guess I don't see my photos as good enough to go into other "photography" communities considering the quality of the shots in them so it seemed like a good idea (prompted by @nonameslefttouse) to make one where my photos might fit in. I also thought it might create a bit more fun around the place.
If you want to join in then you're most welcome.
Thank you very much for the invitation. The same thing happens to me, I don't dare to publish in photography communities out of respect for the creators who publish in them.
Surely you participated in the new community, when I read the presentation text I said to myself: someone has thought of me 😅.
Lol...a community just for you? Yes, why not! ✅
😊 happy end of Sunday and beginning of the week.
Yeah...Sunday is coming to a close, 16:30 here...Work tomorrow. 😭
Sorry to see Sunday come to an end. See you tomorrow 👋
You mean these photos are not shit photos? Hmm, I'll have to mute this user who calls himself galenkp for not complying with the rules! 😁
All photos are welcome here and I'm sure some of them will be very good ones indeed. It's all about how other people perceive them though, or how the individual perceived them.
Thanks so much for the invite, I think it will be a lot of fun to participate.
I think they look great! I've actually heard that offsetting things like the road in the first one is the best way to do it. Something about the rule of thirds and symmetry being not quite as pleasing as you might think. I don't know....
Yeah, one is supposed to divide the screen up into thirds vertically and horizontally apparently, the rule of thirds as you say, but it wasn't something I knew about back then and I think I could have done a better job of applying it, I certainly would now.
I like the photo of the waterfall. Of course there are many ways to take that picture... but that one is not bad. I like it because it gives an idea of its great height and it gives vertigo too.
Yeah, it's probably the better of the three shit photos.
It looks like a nice place, it reminds me of a waterfall near where they lived, my grandparents I also love to take pictures of nature, although compared to you I am a total amateur, you are modest, but I can tell you have a lot of practice.
Nitgllghtcap National park is a really cool place set in some pretty big mountains so the hinking can be difficult although there's some easier ones to take also. It's in a nice part of Australia and with many waterfalls, large and small, it's a great spot to hike in with a picnic and relax for a while.
Thanks for commenting and your nice remarks.
Compared to my photography skill, yours is good, specially that you captured the magnificence of nature, I believe that there's nothing more beautiful than mother earth. It's so beautiful specially falls and the spring, it reminds me of my province since I miss rural life and wanna escape reality for a moment and do some mountain adventures then took a nice shots of every places I was in.
I tend to spend more time enjoying the moments I'm in than working out how best to capture them on my camera however I still enjoy getting a good shit of those moments.
Have you spent much time in the mountains hiking?
Yeah I do lot before specially during summer which is the best time to climb mountains since everything is green and the beauty will show up itself. I am planning to go province this year to have peace of mind with nature itself, I believe that your a nature person base on your post and we are the same which greenery is a friend.
Taking pictures wouldn't be gone if we were going somewhere because it captures how beautiful our mother nature is. But it cannot capture what we actually see.
That's right, you clearly have a good understanding of it.
What should the rest of us who take our photos with a mobile phone do if you call these photos of yours shit photography? 🤣
I bet you have another photo of this waterfall that shows where the water comes from.
If not, then really, shit 🙂
Yeah, I have other shots of this waterfall, and the river as well...they might be shit too though!
I actually really love the second shot there. That is exactly the kind of shot I encouraged my students to take back when I did photography workshops on a more regular basis. It could be improved by framing a little better, as you say, but it is still really good as is.
I think these days it is much easier to gain photography experience and improve just by taking lots of photos, seeing the results, adjusting, taking lots more, etc. When I started teaching workshops digital was still too expensive, and film runs out too fast, so I'd have all my students construct wooden frames and we'd do photowalks carrying those around to practicing composing and framing. But now with smartphones, I can just have everyone use the camera that's always with them.
One day I'll have a lesson or two...one day I'll do lots of things I guess. For now it's a low priority so I just take photos and don't stress too much about the results. No one sees them but me other than a few on Hive, and I get to live the memories of where my photos are taken in real life so it seems enough.
Good idea on the wooden frame thing though. I'll make one and slip it into my back pocket so it's always with me.
Shitography lies in the eyes of the beholder.
Sunset photo - it's nice but yeah, a little off. I can see it. I like the leading lines of the road but they're not leading to the main subject, the sunset. 50/50 on the horizon is rarely great and the sign post. Still not a really bad photo, just room for improvement.
Waterfall - well, if you didn't have another vantage point at the time a snapshot is totally legit for the memories. You did the best you could.
Rock pool - oh my, they are difficult. The lighting is very difficult for cameras to catch accurately, hence the blown out white water. And that middle stem/tree dissecting the pool is a little distracting to the subject. But despite it all - I can so imagine how beautiful of place this is.
I have a ton of shitography on my harddrive. Will have to see if or which ones I'd want to share here.
Yeah, that road one...maybe if I stood in the middle of the road to take it and got run over by a triple road train it would have been perfect! 😂
I tend not to take photography too seriously and back a while simply didn't give a shit. I've learned a few things over the years though and I think I do a better job.. but not good enough that I want to post in "photography" communities.
As for the first picture .... I like it, it's a different perspective framing, but it's not bad, just the sign hahahaha I give it an 8 hahahaha
The second one.... is beautiful! It's only points to observe.... and if there was no other, this would have been a bad photo? I like it, it's not a 10 but it can be a 7.
On the third one, if there's a lack of focus...., someone who knows less than 1/3 of what you do is talking to you. So I'm not even qualified to give the scores I gave before.😂
This community is going to be a lot of fun!!!!
You're grading my photos? Well, I didn't think any of them would have made it over 2/10 so it's all good.
Just kidding! But I thought they were good! Really! Keep taking shitty pictures!
Brother this aren't even shit photos, they are actually really beautiful. If these are shit, then I wonder what to call the pictures I take with my phone 🤔.
Well, it sounds to me like you have what could be called shit photos, certainly by your own estimation, on your phone. I guess we can sometimes be our own harshest critic.
I don't really get what's shitty on the first picture. I think having the sunset in the middle looks nice, the road on the left adds depth to the picture, and having the road next to the greenery shows a good contrast of progress and nature. The road marker is the only bad one, but not something a little crop wouldn't fix.
I can imagine what you mean with a better vantage point in the second picture. For the third picture, the plant in the middle of the picture kind of blocks the full glory of the pool. Apart from that, you did a good job of having the other plants frame the pool perfectly.
I think a centralised road in the first image might have looked better, or maybe I should have applied the rule of thirds a little more effectively in respect of the framing rather than having the road running down the extreme left side. Too late now though. I'm not too concerned, clearly, as if I was I'd not have put the image on this post. It is what it is and my life will go on regardless.
quite inviting rock pool
Yep.
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I really like that waterfall image 😀
Thanks!
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There is a theory that I heard when I started in photography and I personally like it a lot: "if your photo doesn't look good, maybe you didn't crouch down enough." The first photo looks very nice, the imposing thing was in the sky so you had to give it the whole show, so I suggest that next time you put your camera on the ground and raise it slightly and if you place a living being a little further forward, the image will be spectacular. Great photos,