I’m going through all my old negatives (from like, when, photographers used film in cameras and developed film and all that old fashioned stuff) and am totally amazed by the number of truly bad photographs I made twenty, thirty and forty years ago. It’s astounding. Some of them I remember, most of them (thank heavens) I do not remember making.
It is interesting to note that just about all of the negatives exposed during that period were of absolutely no significance. Or maybe, being of absolutely no significance is significant because making terrible photographs was necessary to becoming a good photographer. Which refers to my famous saying, “Nothing is completely useless; it can always be used as a bad example.”
We become “good” at something through repetition. Authors don’t write the “Great American Novel” at their first attempt. Athletes don’t win gold medals without training and practice. The “overnight success” usually happens after a lot of preparation and minor successes. You can’t expect to make consistently good photographs right away. Learning is involved; that takes time and a lot of practice.
This is a film image from about 1974 or so. The 35 mm negative was backlit with a video light and photographed with my Lumix G85 fitted with a macro lens. Lightroom did the rest.
Comments