Catch-Up

[epiic]

I'm trying to work through photo backlog. One of the reasons I avoid processing photos is that it reminds me how far my photos are from where I wish they were. I'm sure that's a factor for many photographers. I am not all that satisfied with either of the sets I just finished - not bad, but not what I want

Comments

[epiic]

I think that is a factor. And I think that's why I was happier with my photos many years ago - I thought they were decent, and compared to most of what I saw, they were. But now, following many people on dA (especially the Russians), I see so many amazing photos regularly.

Also with seeing others' photos, I'm seeing their best while I see all of my photos, so that probably skews things even more.

And so the feeling may even be a bit mutual. Or hope so anyway? I see photos and realize I don't know how to make an image like that, so it impresses me. I know how to make pictures that look like my pictures, so that's not impressive to me. Maybe others whose imagine I feel I can't match see my images the same way.

I probably should just accept my photos without comparison to others. I do think my photos are lame next to Eric or Hexlord or Pireze. But that shouldn't matter, and I hope to find some way to not make such comparisons. But what's in my head is also much cooler than what I produce, so even if I'm not comparing with them, I'm still falling short of what the goal with the image was. And that dissatisfaction I don't think I should ignore.

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I look at a lot of my earlier photos and recall how happy I was with them at the time, but see a lot of flaws now. Part of that is moving from amateur to professional - eager and passionate to mature and experienced. On the whole I believe I take better photos now, but I find the photos I like the most tend to get the least response, which makes me question my taste.

That's definitely true. You shoot 100 photos and see many variations sometimes of a single pose before you got it "right." But there are always 1 or 2 others that give the "right" photo a run for its money, which means you hem and haw over them and that can mentally detract from the final product for you (and me). Not sure how to deal with that. I've seen Eric (BWB) shoot and he will shoot 1000 photos and use 10 final. I don't know how he manages. I guess more coverage (spray and pray) means more to choose from, but for me that ends up with more to waffle over. I definitely prefer to try and do more to set up a good shot and have less to pick from in the end, but sometimes I get to the end and wish I'd taken that "right" photo at just a slightly different angle or moved that side light another degree. So I guess I'm not quite shooting the right amount yet.

I agree you shouldn't. Nor should I. Unfortunately, I don't know what to do to make that go away. Some of us continually strive for our own perfection and to a point I think that's good, but if you take it too far, hold yourself to too high a standard, you end up choking on your own imperfections. There was a great quote I saw attributed to Salvador Dali - “Have no fear of perfection - you'll never reach it.”