Hello everyone, today I wanted to do something a bit different and talk about my progression as a photographer. I’m going to dig deep into my Lightroom catalog in order show you five images a week starting from when I first got my dslr camera. The reason I’m doing this is to show you that everyone starts off taking crappy pictures, but if you persist for long enough eventually you’re bound to make something good.
This was the Christmas morning when I unboxed my first dslr camera. I told my brother to pose outside with his cat Findlay. Notice how everything looks oddly blue, I thought I was so cool and smart for being able to change the white balance of my pictures. That being said despite its technical imperfections this photo still holds a place in my heart, possibly because it’s one of the rare times where I told my brother what to do and he actually listened. It’s a fond memory of me being the younger brother in control.
My first attempt at night photography. I put this image in my portfolio when I applied for da Vinci College in Halifax. I still enjoy this photograph even though it doesn’t really mean or say anything. Sometimes its just fun to go out and see what you can do with your expensive new toys.
And then I bought a telephoto lens. When I was younger I went through a serious birding phase. I remember walking through the Public Gardens in Halifax for at least an hour trying to take photos of whatever avian creatures I came across. With no luck coming my way I decided to go for some Bud the Spud fries down the street, and all along the old Library there were dozens of birds (as I’m sure there are right now), so I kept on taking photos and this is what came to me. Out of the thousands of bird photographs I took this is the only one I still care about. This image went through several different edits before I finally got one that I was happy with (thank you Steve Kaiser for teaching me how to edit a photograph).
I’m not sure why I took this photograph. If I had to make a guess as to why I kept it in my catalog all these years I’d probably say that it’s because there’s a layer of mystery to it. Whose bike is it? Why did they leave it there? Although it’s not far from a good image it’s the first one I made that tells a story by excluding information, rather than providing it.
Every photographer makes the mistake of shooting into the sun when they first start photography. Although it can provide interesting results most often it’s just lackluster, much like this photograph here. If I remember correctly this was taken during a trip to Newfoundland, I must’ve been eighteen at the time. It’s images like these that remind me I’m often a very bad judge of what makes a good photograph. I showed this images to countless friends thinking it was great but looking back now it gets a “meh” if I’m being generous.
That’s all for today. Check in next week I’m going to be continually updating this series of posts until I reach the current day.
-Jeremy