Originally posted by SSGGeezer I will say that Reading the forums here and paying attention to what the good shooters say, has helped the most. You can tell them by looking at the quality of images here and their willingness to answer questions on how they got the image.
I remember coaching basketball, if players shots were consistently short you'd tell them to aim for the back of the rim. You could go in to all the physics involved, discuss the link between the hand and th eye, through the connection through the brain, but that's not necessary, all that's necessary is "aim for the back of the rim." That will get the kid back on track. And there are cheats like that for every shooting situation, and a guy I coached with, one of the best shooting coaches on the planet, knew them all.
Photography is the same way. Find the guy who does what you want to do, try and discover his "cheat." Not all the theory, not the science what you need is how he thinks about his images that enable him to prioduce the things he does. There is the theoretical and there is the practical... photography is practice. The theoretician is going to say, "if you consistently aim for the back of the rim, sooner or later your balls are going to be hitting the rim and bouncing out." My buddy had another way to think about that problem too. It's all about results. He had a thought for you to keep in mind, for every conceivable shooting error.
Quote: I shudder to recall my belief that the image was good.
I shudder to think people bought some of those images. If you liked it, someone somewhere else liked it too. You may have evolved into a different style, shooting philosophy and ethos, but essentially, you've changed how you think. Others who think like you used to think will still find value in those old images. You have to be careful when growing, not to dismiss the value of your earlier work. It's evolution, it was important. It's importance is not diminished by the fact that you've moved on.
Have an image taken with a K20D of a sunset with the oddest looking shadow detail you may have ever seen. The ground is actually speckled between where the light just barely crossed the threshold needed to record an exposure. As technical photography it's awful. it's hanging on a huge kitchen wall with about 20 other large prints and paintings. I don't like it any more. That guy loves it. it's art.