This past weekend was just brutal weather here along the lake. It was cold, raining, and extremely windy. This really reduced my ability to take pictures. It did however allow me to take a step back and look at the big picture when it came to my photography. This included where do I want to take it, what do I enjoy about it, what is my style, and most importantly I went through everyone of one of my images evaluating them.
I had read an article on Thomas Hogan's website before about how difficult it is for people to evaluate their own work. The reason we have such a difficult time is we have an emotional connection to the work. We sees stories and subjects that might not be conveyed that strongly in the piece because of our personal connection. A photograph should take no explanation for the viewer to understand it. This is why I like vague titles for my shots and don't often include the stories behind it. I like you, the viewer, to find your own story in the piece.
If it isn't your strongest work, you aren't supposed to share it, well at least that is the rule of thumb. So going forward I am going to limit my photo posts to only 3-4 images. I will only go over when there truly if it is truly special. Because the weather was so bad this past weekend I was refrained from shooting, so instead I went through evaluating all my images. Don't worry I still got my one shot a day in, so my 365 is still going :)
I learnt some really interesting thing going through my images that I had never noticed before. First off, there were a bunch of shots that were almost there. By this I mean the scene and composition were good but I was just missing one piece to make it a great shot. I now have a list of shooting locations that I can go back to and just wait for that missing piece :)
I also learnt something really interesting about the way I look at the world. In photography one of the main compositional techniques is to move a viewer from the bottom left hand corner into the frame as this is the way most of us naturally want to see. As I look through my pictures I have realized that I am the opposite. In most of my photos I compose coming from the right hand side into the frame. I even was looking at shots from years ago when I knew nothing about photography, but same thing, I moved the viewer from the right to left. Is this wrong or right, you tell me. I don't I will change because it is my natural style but I found it was an interesting observation.
To self evaluate is a very difficult exercise. We need to set all emotional connections aside, take a step back, and ask difficult questions. Although, it is hard it is essential for us to improve in whatever craft we are evaluating. And you never know, by doing so you might find out some interesting details that you never knew about yourself :) Without further adieu, my Monday morning photos....
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| Pondering |
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| Recession |
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| Barren |
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