I was out taking photographs this weekend and it struck me that I actually feel that my photography has got worse since I started the course. I think this is for a number of reasons:
1. Part of the process I'm going through is about un-learning some of my previous conceptions of what made a good photograph. This means that I'm having to go back to basics to find out what I think works and what doesn't work.
2. Previously I used to go out and shoot the big fish - i.e. I'd find out where the big fish were (usually by looking at other people's work on flickr, finding the location and then visiting it in order to pretty much recreate the shot. This was effective, but kind of cheating.
3. I'm now comparing my work against genuinely good photographers as opposed to people on flickr, so my work is worse, relatively as well as absolutely.
One productive conclusion that I came to was that as I might often be unsure of the precise photograph I was trying to capture, I should probably be comfortable that I need to consider my first visit to a location or subject as a scouting mission, where I can learn about what works and doesn't work without feeling the pressure to actually capture assignment ready photographs. I can then return to the location/subject with more focus and control.
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