My Progression as a Photographer Part 5

Hello everyone! I can’t believe we’re already on part 5 and I’m not even a third of the way through my Lightroom catalogue. I guess this is going to be a long series. If this is your first time reading then this is a series of posts where I chronicle my progression as a photographer by choosing five images a week to look back and reflect upon.

Abstract trees blowing in the wind long shutter speed

By the point in time that this photo was made I’ve been taking photos with my dslr for well over a year and am well into my second semester at da Vinci College’s photography program. I’m starting to get a good handle on how the camera functions and how to use it effectively. When I saw that it was one hell of a windy day and I happened to have my tripod and a special filter to block light coming into my camera (in order to have a longer shutter speed required for this image), I knew that this had potential for a good photograph.

abstract dog spinning with long shutter speed

Who doesn’t like taking pictures of their friends pets? Sometimes I feel a bit snobbish and think that taking photos of pets is below me. But then I look at this image and am reminded that there’s no such thing as a bad genre of art, just bad mindsets to have about each genre.

abstract frozen water on tree branches

One of my favorite times during the year is that in between period when it’s not quite winter and it’s not quite fall. Every once in a while there’ll be periods of precipitation that freeze overnight but don’t turn into snow. It’s quite beautiful to see all the trees have frozen branches on them, it’s something I try to photograph every time I see it happen. I guess I was in an abstract mood at that point in my life. I have dozens of photographs of tree branches, not many of them turn out quite as funky as this one though.

golden necklace on a blue background

This was an image that I did for a school project on macro photography. Either that or I just did it for fun, I can’t quite remember. Anyway this was my grandmother’s necklace and it was her passing that was one of the reasons that I chose to go to photography school instead of going a safer route like business. I always remembered her as a painter and every time me and my family would visit my grandparents it was always her art that would be on the walls. When I showed this image to one of my friends they said it was the Chinese symbol for “Love” but that the symbol was backwards. Whoops!

two swings with motion blur at night

This is one of those images that I never felt a huge love for. I was required to do some night photography as an assignment for school so I just went to the park a couple of blocks down the street and made this image. Looking at it now I can’t help but feel as though there’s something in this image that I can’t quite put into words, that there’s some kind of meaning here that hasn’t revealed itself to me. Maybe one day I’ll figure it out. Maybe one day I’ll re-edit it and then the meaning will become more clear. Until that day comes the image will remain only a half realized one for me. And that’s okay. I’m glad I went out and made this image despite its imperfections.