What on Earth is that header image??
That, my dear Steemit friends, is what I use to think was a good photo back in 2012. I feel very dirty showing everyone my dark past, but at the same time I hope it provides some encouragement that wherever you are on your photography journey, you will constantly improve. I hope.
That is Jajce, Bosnia. Taken in June 2012. When I moved to London in 2011, I decided I needed to learn how to take better photos if I was going to be travelling around Europe. This was one of the many "misses" in my learning process. Let's see some more shall we??
This is going to hurt me more than it hurts you
Hey... that's not so bad...
I did say "Hits" and misses. While this shot is taken from a Canon 550D back in 2011, I can at least say I was on to something. It's not perfect and wouldn't end up on my website today but I still kind of like it. I needed something a little more pleasing after that horror show of a first image.
No! Just, no! If you think this is a creative approach to photography by leaving one colour in and making everything else black and white then stop it. The only colour where it possibly might look passable is Red and even then when it's on a London bus or phone booth. Better to be on the safe side and just don't. Taken in April 2011. Canon DIGITAL IXUS 100 IS
What's going on here? I have no idea. And if I have no idea, then whoever I show it to will have even less of an idea. It's not abstract, it's not tranquil, it's just a mess of tones and composition. I'm sure it looked better when I was in Plitvice Lakes back in 2012, but it's a nothing shot now.
I'm starting to find my wings! I've put that terrible learning period in Europe behind me and at least I can tell what's going on in the photo. Unfortunately I appear to have slipped on the clarity slider and pushed it way way WAY too far. This shot of Kathmandu in 2013 with my 550D was my journey home from London. I had grand plans to become a professional photographer as soon as I touched down back in Melbourne.
Hmmm...maybe I won't be quite ready. Thailand 2013 still had some kinks to work out. Australia was next. I might have to find a real job before my dreams can be realised.
Let's skip the rest of 2013 because there wasn't anything to show for it. Let's jump to 2014 and my honeymoon in Japan. When I first started to take photos that would end up for sale on my website. I had a Canon 5D mkiii here, but don't let the camera gear upgrade fool you. This improvement is all in study and self criticism. Understanding post processing and training my eye took a long time. 3 years of a lot of photography and improvements and I've got maybe a couple of photos I believe to be worth selling to people. That is no where near enough to make me a professional. This is just a beginning.
Another shot from 2014 and one from a local beach. I'm happy with how I can shoot something that to me isn't exotic. More progress...
2015... My style is developing into my own. My photos are being recognised and applauded on social media. I'm starting to build up a name for myself. But unless I can maintain quality and keep improving...I'm not a professional.
2016... This is the year I quit my full time job and went "pro". I had enough images I was happy with to sell. I was well known enough locally and studied enough to start running workshops to supplement print sales. I was able to dedicate my time to photography more, with the support of my wife as well. My attention to detail was much better than the year before and I even took my first cover photo (Hopetoun Falls).
2017... A big year of solid photography and podcasting and workshopping... Improving is getting harder and harder. It gets very easy to stick to what you know and do what is easy. I have to start taking risks and branching out if I'm going to grow.
2018...over 3 months into the year and I haven't been out taking photos nearly as much as I did last year. I'll be having a baby soon and teaching photography and talking about photography takes up more time than actual photography. I'm no where near the end of my photography journey.
I hope this insight into what my photos use to look like is encouragement to keep learning and not compare your work to those photographers you admire too much. Use them as I do, as aspiration and inspiration. Not a hurdle that you are falling short of.
This is just 7 years of my photography journey. I probably could start earlier as I always liked taking photos. But I started from when I decided this could be a career path.
This is quite difficult for me to post these images. I'd rather they never see the light of day. It's like seeing yourself in a photo when you weighed a lot more than you do now, and you've spent the last few years working hard at the gym to get fit and look good. These are my "Before" photos, I can't believe I use to look like that...
Intro Post
Website kieranstone.com
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This is a great post! I looked at the first picture, without even reading the title and I was like "wtf is this shit", about to hit the unfollow button 😅😂. I'm glad I carried on! It's very courageous of you to show us your old pictures and being critical about ones own work is so important for growing and learning! Resteeming this :)
I wonder how many unfollows I will get from people that don't carry on 😂
At least your resteem should make people look twice. Thanks!
"wtf is this shit"
that gave me a laugh as did the title shot!
It's what I said when I found it on my computer :D
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Oh man, that first photo. Heh. Pretty crazy how learning to edit can change everything. It's so important!
You're an excellent photographer and this is great encouragement for people that are newish to the photography game. I wonder if I have any old images... hah.
I think knowing where I came from makes me more understanding of other peoples work and what they are trying to achieve when it seems they've dialled up the clarity to 110. Or maybe some people just like that look...
I'd like to see some old gems from you!
My eyes!!!
Haha, we've all got those skeletons in our photography closet.
Be sure to keep on eye on the #photogames this week (specifically Thursday). That's all I can say. ;)
Oooh now I'm intrigued
Did you have a photography or post production problem early on, or is that the same thing?
A bit of both. My eye for the final product wasn't trained enough. So I ended up with poor composition and over processed images
Great to see your progression, everyone has to start somewhere, and even the first shots show skill!
I was happy with some photos I was taking. But they were rare. They are all important though, both for my memories and my growth 😁
Exactly, that's whats important! :D
Thanks a lot for sharing, now I know what you meant last time, when you told me about your pics of 6 years ago, haha! 😄 It's really motivating, to see how you improved throughout the years! I hope I can travel to Australia and join one of your workshops once! 🙂
I may have had the inspiration for this post from that conversation 😉
It's a great art journey! Keep up your amazing work @kieranstone
Thank you very much!
Your bad photos are still a thousand times better than my 'good' photos. Should I be sad about that?
I guess it depends on context. Are you setting out to capture a commercially viable photo? If you just want an image that represents your memory in a nice way then any technical aspects are irrelevant.
The second one. But it would still be nice if they looked like the first one.
Ah man, don't be so tough on yourself. Looking for improvement always, but saying those photos are bad...
Of course we are in a waaaaay diffenret level, but I found those pics to be super cool; especially the first one, it looks like a painting.
I know "bad" is all relative, but looking back on it that first image missed the mark completely on what I had envisioned in the first place. I may have hit the dart board, but if I was aiming for a triple twenty then it was a bad throw.
Right.
I don't know why but everytime I look at it I just imagine it's some sort of fantasy place, I even question myself if that is even a real place! Is that a real place?
As you said, 'bad' is indeed relative. From the reality point of view that may be bad, but for me it's awesome hahahaa
Of course everytime we are trying to improve our skills and for us it seems that there is nothing interesting in the way we capture moments but those are really masterpieces. If not for you, then for a lot of people for sure 😊
When I see an image of mine and I think it would have looked better if I didn't process it at all, then I've failed that particular photo. I don't mind the fails, so long as I learn from them :)
That's the spirit! :)
Wow that first shot looks like you have put it into Photomatix and set the HDR sliders to 11 ! it did give me a chuckle.
Nice to see the progression in the post. I have come from the complete opposite direction of no editing as I started with slide film which you could not edit at all. When I went digital I stubbornly (lets be honest arrogantly and stupidly) refused to do anything but very minor editing and just shot in JPG for way too many years. In my thought bubble at the time JPG seemed infinitely more flexible than film and I looked down on RAW as a waste of space that was just for people who wanted to over edit photos to make them look like your first one. I was very much of the old if you can't shoot it in camera, using graduated filters etc, your were just not good enough school.
In hindsight that all seems completely rediculious. I always shoot RAW and often shoot multiple exposures of difficult scenes to use masks to expand the dynamic range, increase depth of field, average out noise, etc. I have even had my old slides scanned in high colour depth TIFF files so I can edit them. In some cases you can recover shadows/highlights using multiple slide scans from bracketed slides.
Social media really got me out of the dark ages; as I could see that people were making beautiful works using modern post processing techniques and it was not just all terrible HDR. I have seen your blog post about what it means to 'photoshop' a photo on your website, and I think it's a good one. If I had read something like that in 2006 it would have saved me 5 years in the wilderness.
Living up in the frozen northern part of the Pacific North West has certainly influenced my style as well, as you have to adapt to a lot less colour than you normally have to work with and need to draw the viewer in using shadow contrast and framing. Its almost like working in B&W for 5 months of the year.
I think we are both ending up somewhere in the middle with our editing styles as seen by the infamous Mt Field series of shots !
Definitely exposure to other art and your environment play a huge part in your development. That's why it's good to absorb as much art as you can and hone in on what appeals to you. Even if that means changing your opinion on what classifies as a good photo. You've done well to accept the changes in your opinions, going from film, to digital (jpeg) and then to allowing some processing of RAW. You're unlikely to succeed if you get stuck in your way and remain stubborn (arrogant and stupid).
This is a great post, viewing your pictures improve over time give me hope to improve as well :D
Reflection on your progress is always a good way to determine if you are stagnating or improving.
good nature
thanks
I love the green mess you hate so much. I find it tranquilizing nonetheless. This also applies to the green bamboo (?) in Australia (?).
Maybe I still lack a feeling for quality myself but I would go for having that lilac beauty in my rooms as a print. Really.
Thanks to @grizzabella for resteeming this post, I would have missed it otherwise.
I'm glad you like them even if I don't!
The bamboo is in Kyoto, Japan.
Very interesting photo, awesome, my work has not been like this, maybe I will try again to be like this, always successful friends
thank you :)
Cool shots! Except those super HDR ones.... Really nice progress over the years!
I think everyone goes through a super HDR phase when they are learning :D. Thankfully I've grown out of it
Probably. Or maybe it was just so popular at certain time so many people did that. Just like those gray+one color shots. Anyway, your current work is awesome. Great to keep up and progress like that!
Oh por Dios!!! That first photo!!!!! Hey, you weren't that bad, your editing how ever. . . (i'll just leave it blank ha ha ha) Good thing is that not only did you improve, but now you teach and help others improve too! I've learned a lot from your tutorials. So thanks a lot for that!
P.S: This is the best post ever!!!!
I've made plenty of mistakes so hopefully other people don't have to! ;)