Quoth the raven nevermore...

superduckz

I've been doing some experimenting with high contrast lately...

DaddyO

Nice capture. A lot you can do with that image

superduckz

Thanks! This seems to be where my tastes are taking me. To be honest, I'm a little surprised actually. I've been taking photography semi-seriously for only about six months and I'm still more or less "discovering" what my style is. I finally have a large enough folder of favorites that I save to without over-thinking things. I went through it today somewhat deliberately and realized that it's quite a bit different that I expected it to be be when I began this. Surprising... but at least I don't completely suck at it! At least I don't think I do? .. Fun stuff..

DaddyO

superduckz wrote: »

Thanks! This seems to be where my tastes are taking me. To be honest, I'm a little surprised actually. I've been taking photography semi-seriously for only about six months and I'm still more or less "discovering" what my style is. I finally have a large enough folder of favorites that I save to without over-thinking things. I went through it today somewhat deliberately and realized that it's quite a bit different that I expected it to be be when I began this. Surprising... but at least I don't completely suck at it! At least I don't think I do? .. Fun stuff..

Oh hell ... your leaving the door open. What to do?

I've been at this "fun stuff" and it is, for awhile and I still am uncertain as to my "style". Though I confess I am closer to knowing than when I started. In the end I think I don't need an answer to that. At least not a complete answer as none is demanded just asked as if one might know for sure. I just keep taking pictures of what appeals to me natively + experience and developing those to taste. I grow on that and inspiration from impressive works and methods seen. I may not be excellent but I am working toward it. As Ashley Brilliant would say "I may not be perfect, but parts of me are excellent" Followed with his "I don't have a solution, but I admire the problem".

When I look back at my pictures I think the first thing that runs across my mind is "are the compositions good and do they work"? 2nd I think is "is the processing credible"? Then other measures
come out in no particular order. Reshoot, rework, park it or trash it. You know, things like that.

superduckz

When I started this I resolved to NOT get into to much history from the masters. I realize this sounds contradictory but I wanted to evolve into my own shooter. I knew that if I started studying the masters that I would inevitably just start to mimic them. Deliberately or not. I've abandoned that philosophy now but I'm glad I did it early on. The world might soon have WAY more Ken Rockewll imitators that it knows what to do with. (yeah I said it! )

It's odd to me to keep reading on respected sites and books that a serious photographer should "discover and develop his/her own style" as though NOT pigeonholing yourself is a negative. I suppose it could be if it's your main source of income and you need a niche but hell even Ansel Adams tried color work in his later years and commented that he wished he'd tried it sooner. Even dismissing all that, a big part of the problem for me is simply categorizing my portfolio. I'm all over the place. I'm still in the infantile stages of trying new styles and techniques and I genuinely like them all.. well most of them anyway. Street photography "can" be pure genius but I find a lot of the latest stuff to be overinflated self congratulatory fluff. At least to my eye (the flickr "HSCP" boards make me gag sometimes at the overinflated drivel they can pump out).

But anyway, I'm also limited by geography. I have no doubt that if I lived anywhere that had hills or mountains that THAT is where I would spend my time. But where geography is concerned, Florida is beaches, marshes and occasionally interesting architecture/skylines. I end up doing a lot of 8x20 crops which prints nicely but sucks for the web. So I keep trying new things... and I like them all. I'm already watching moon cycles for shots I have in mind and I'm excited for the approaching lightening season. Jacksonville is a virtual tesla coil on the summer and I have high hopes. Also, with all the moving water around here I LOVE using the 10 stop ND filter. It's awesome (even if it is being done to death) and new ideas pop into my head all the time. I just wish I HAD more time

I'm also juuuust now getting equipped to decently photograph people. I get invited to do a lot of photojourno style stuff at parties and am setting up some cheap lighting hacks at home to do portrait work for family and friends. An again (maybe I'm suffering from noobitus) I have fun and genuinely like almost all of it.