That Eureka moment

[Mike Jackson]

Looking back through the pictures I've taken over the last couple of years I was amazed at a couple of things, how much I've improved and how much more critical of my own images I am now. A lot of the pictures that I deemed worthy of processing 18 months ago would have been deleted had I taken them now.

Apart from getting better glass there is a definite point where my technique shows a marked improvement. This was due to me attending a one day wildlife photography course at RSPB Dungeness. It was on that day that everything clicked into place and I also discovered what other equipment I needed to move my photography to the next level.

I just wondered if anyone else had had this sort of experience or if it's been a more gradual thing.

As an example below are two images taken on the 25th May 2009 and 25th July this year.


Before by Mike Jackson1, on Flickr


After by Mike Jackson1, on Flickr

 

[Forbiddenbiker]

Yeah too right, plenty of times really, the first time I guess its 30 odd years ago as a boy, my first camera was a folding bellows Kodak, it used a large format film, wasn’t very light proof and didn’t have much clarity if any at all….
I got that camera on my 14th birthday and spent a years worth of pocket money buying film and getting it processed, initially the results where very poor, but as I persisted and badgered my dad for more money to continue the results got better and better. Until eventually on my next birthday my father bought me a real camera called a Zenit SLR. Lol


The first roll processed blew my mind and sealed the fate of my Kodak forever. ... I can still remember standing outside the chemist (that’s where we got film processed back then) looking through the prints shocked and amazed they where all exposed correctly!

 

[magicaxeman]

Ahhh, the moment we transition from snaps to photographs.

I noticed it myself earlier this year, and though I still churn out a reasonable quantity of duff shots per keeper, mine has improved and I know the indicators of when it will take the next leap forward.