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I'm not sure where to post this... so if a mod feels it appropriate to move it, please do.
This is a thread to say thanks to everyone on TP who has contributed to my journey into photography. There are some incredibly helpful and supportive people on here with, collectively, many hundreds of years of experience of photography between them. Thanks to their generosity in giving their time to commenting on our photos, advising on what gear not to buy (more often than not!) and what we should be thinking about tweaking in our skillset next, we're all able to improve and progress. I probably shouldn't name individuals for fear of offending the countless people who are missed off, but hey ho. @Phil V is one of the most patient contributors and always appears willing to help out a newbie; @sunnyside_up inspires so many of us with her wonderful family shots amongst other things; @Garry Edwards is always willing to give guidance on lighting matters; @Pookeyhead has given me advice on monitors and has wonderfully balanced view on what actually makes a good photograph; @Tintin124 is a go to for macro advice (despite me not getting on very well with this). The biggest influence though has been the TP52, organised by @Cobra, which although I've only managed 1.5 times (in aggregate) has probably helped the most in terms of my own development.
I picked up my very first DSLR back in 2006 but I barely used it more than a month or so and, to be honest, I didn't have enough I wanted to take photos of to keep me going back to it. The camera (a second hand Fuji S2) is still sitting in a cupboard here, somewhat unloved. I spent those couple of months reading about the theory probably more than I managed to get out and take photos... but perhaps that was still a useful grounding?
Fast forward to 2014: two children in tow, a love of mountains and hillwalking and suddenly I have plenty of reasons to get the camera out. So I jump back into it and buy a relatively cheap second hand Pentax K5 and a couple of inexpensive lenses. Thus my journey begins. More for my own benefit, I've decided to go back through these two and a bit years (handily catalogued by Lightroom) and put together my own photo "journey". I wanted to put some of my favourite shots in one place - without particular regard as to their technical qualities - simply that I like them as images.
It was an interesting process - I surprised myself that some of my early shots were actually passable! I obviously had a good dose of beginner's luck and what you can't see are the number of shutter actuations occurring between each image that's in this journey
The full journey is here, My Photo Journey, but below are some selected photos with comments on why they're important to me or relevant in my journey. This isn't a thread where I'm seeking critique - in many cases I've already done that to the photos. It's more about reflecting on what a fantastic resource this place is and how it's personally helped me develop my photography over the last two years. I have a lifetime of further learning ahead, but this has been a brilliant foundation course so far and I'm looking forward to the rest of year 3 already
So, here goes...
Pretty much my first shot with my camera - definitely beginner's luck getting it in focus at f/1.8:
And the other side of that sleep, I managed to capture what would be one of my favourite shots of my son - despite the fact it's quite out of focus and slightly underexposed:
Over 1000 shots later, I'm starting to play a bit more with composition and getting more than just a single subject in the frame. Again, this is a bit out of focus and underexposed so I clearly haven't learnt my lessons well enough:
I've clearly gone a bit crazy because the next shot - just a month later is showing as being just after my 5000th shot! I'm guessing I must have been pointing & spraying. Still, I particularly love this image, despite the fence - or maybe that makes it?
It's now past summer, another 4000-odd actuations appear to have passed me by (!) and I've been getting out and shooting a bit of landscape - largely unsuccessfully. So I try my hand at something else... macro. Here's one of my few efforts which was almost ok, but I have to say it's an area of photography which intrigues me without grabbing hold and not letting go. I'm pretty sure the lens as reported would have been modified with a Raynox or similar because I don't have a 50mm macro:
Back to more familiar subjects and I've invested in a background and a couple of flashes (as well as another 1200 shots fired). I'll later expand this to a mains head and more modifiers, but for the moment it's bounced flash. I have to say, this is still one of my more successful shots - ok, the white background is a bit "meh" but I've since taken far worse setup shots than this (yes Beth, I know his rather inelegant pose needs a bit of work...)!
So, we're now into year 2 of camera ownership and I'm still to take a reasonable shot up a mountain. I've struggled with the urge to overprocess everything but for once I manage to avoid that and I have something which is at least a fairly faithful representation - even if it's still lacking the right light (or white balance). This trip was also one where I dragged my Mamiya RZ67 up to the summit. Sadly my film shots were far less "passable"
The next shot must be around about shot 10,000 and although it's a grab shot at my son's party, I've started to appreciate the importance of light - so I carted my mains head into the hall and set it up to bounce off the ceiling and back wall. Unfortunately that meant every shot basically had to be from the same angle towards the bouncy castle and therefore cluttered, but still... I'm learning:
This is a thread to say thanks to everyone on TP who has contributed to my journey into photography. There are some incredibly helpful and supportive people on here with, collectively, many hundreds of years of experience of photography between them. Thanks to their generosity in giving their time to commenting on our photos, advising on what gear not to buy (more often than not!) and what we should be thinking about tweaking in our skillset next, we're all able to improve and progress. I probably shouldn't name individuals for fear of offending the countless people who are missed off, but hey ho. @Phil V is one of the most patient contributors and always appears willing to help out a newbie; @sunnyside_up inspires so many of us with her wonderful family shots amongst other things; @Garry Edwards is always willing to give guidance on lighting matters; @Pookeyhead has given me advice on monitors and has wonderfully balanced view on what actually makes a good photograph; @Tintin124 is a go to for macro advice (despite me not getting on very well with this). The biggest influence though has been the TP52, organised by @Cobra, which although I've only managed 1.5 times (in aggregate) has probably helped the most in terms of my own development.
I picked up my very first DSLR back in 2006 but I barely used it more than a month or so and, to be honest, I didn't have enough I wanted to take photos of to keep me going back to it. The camera (a second hand Fuji S2) is still sitting in a cupboard here, somewhat unloved. I spent those couple of months reading about the theory probably more than I managed to get out and take photos... but perhaps that was still a useful grounding?
Fast forward to 2014: two children in tow, a love of mountains and hillwalking and suddenly I have plenty of reasons to get the camera out. So I jump back into it and buy a relatively cheap second hand Pentax K5 and a couple of inexpensive lenses. Thus my journey begins. More for my own benefit, I've decided to go back through these two and a bit years (handily catalogued by Lightroom) and put together my own photo "journey". I wanted to put some of my favourite shots in one place - without particular regard as to their technical qualities - simply that I like them as images.
It was an interesting process - I surprised myself that some of my early shots were actually passable! I obviously had a good dose of beginner's luck and what you can't see are the number of shutter actuations occurring between each image that's in this journey
The full journey is here, My Photo Journey, but below are some selected photos with comments on why they're important to me or relevant in my journey. This isn't a thread where I'm seeking critique - in many cases I've already done that to the photos. It's more about reflecting on what a fantastic resource this place is and how it's personally helped me develop my photography over the last two years. I have a lifetime of further learning ahead, but this has been a brilliant foundation course so far and I'm looking forward to the rest of year 3 already
So, here goes...
Pretty much my first shot with my camera - definitely beginner's luck getting it in focus at f/1.8:
And the other side of that sleep, I managed to capture what would be one of my favourite shots of my son - despite the fact it's quite out of focus and slightly underexposed:
Over 1000 shots later, I'm starting to play a bit more with composition and getting more than just a single subject in the frame. Again, this is a bit out of focus and underexposed so I clearly haven't learnt my lessons well enough:
I've clearly gone a bit crazy because the next shot - just a month later is showing as being just after my 5000th shot! I'm guessing I must have been pointing & spraying. Still, I particularly love this image, despite the fence - or maybe that makes it?
It's now past summer, another 4000-odd actuations appear to have passed me by (!) and I've been getting out and shooting a bit of landscape - largely unsuccessfully. So I try my hand at something else... macro. Here's one of my few efforts which was almost ok, but I have to say it's an area of photography which intrigues me without grabbing hold and not letting go. I'm pretty sure the lens as reported would have been modified with a Raynox or similar because I don't have a 50mm macro:
Back to more familiar subjects and I've invested in a background and a couple of flashes (as well as another 1200 shots fired). I'll later expand this to a mains head and more modifiers, but for the moment it's bounced flash. I have to say, this is still one of my more successful shots - ok, the white background is a bit "meh" but I've since taken far worse setup shots than this (yes Beth, I know his rather inelegant pose needs a bit of work...)!
So, we're now into year 2 of camera ownership and I'm still to take a reasonable shot up a mountain. I've struggled with the urge to overprocess everything but for once I manage to avoid that and I have something which is at least a fairly faithful representation - even if it's still lacking the right light (or white balance). This trip was also one where I dragged my Mamiya RZ67 up to the summit. Sadly my film shots were far less "passable"
The next shot must be around about shot 10,000 and although it's a grab shot at my son's party, I've started to appreciate the importance of light - so I carted my mains head into the hall and set it up to bounce off the ceiling and back wall. Unfortunately that meant every shot basically had to be from the same angle towards the bouncy castle and therefore cluttered, but still... I'm learning:
