Development over Time: Say Cheese…

Marcie Pry – you might know her as “Short Temper” from the Hellions of Troy Roller Derby team, as well as being one of the Roller Derby bloggers – asked me a question that, for all intents and purposes, I didn’t feel comfortable expanding on in a blog comment.  Here’s her original question, which was asked with regard to this blog post:

“Looking at your pictures from last year versus this year I see a lot of improvement (nicer exposers, crisper images, etc). Can you reflect on how you feel your photography has changed over the past year?”

Well first off Marcie, much thanks for the compliments. And yes, I have made a conscious effort to improve my photography – almost with every new exposure.  I’ve said in the past that all I know is truly dwarfed by what I don’t know.  And I may not know everything about photography… but I sure as heck want to learn as much as I possibly can.

First off, I’ve made a concerted effort to acquire better glass.  It’s true that you can attach over 50 years of Nikon lenses onto modern bodies, but that doesn’t mean that a 50mm f/1.4 that was manufactured in 1973 is going to surpass one that was built in 2010.  I’ve learned that the hard way, and I’ve traded away many of my vintage manual focus lenses.  With the exception of my Kiev MIR-21H fisheye lens, my Vivitar 19mm f/3.8 ultra-wide angle, and a couple of E-series lenses, my Nikon lens collection is all auto-focus.  It’s not necessary to use a manual-focus lens when an autofocus one will suffice.

I also acquired a copy of Adobe Lightroom.  Previously, I had shot my D700 photos in JPG – the Nikon software that would have converted Nikon’s .NEF (RAW) format to JPG or TIF was buggy and slow, and I figured I would just shoot JPG and work from there.  Lightroom has actually helped me adjust contrasts and tones, and I can feel more confident shooting in RAW format and editing the pictures on the computer.  I still shoot JPG now and again, but Lightroom has actually helped me fine-tune RAW pictures for better output.

I’ve made two conscious decisions regarding my film shooting.  If I’m going to shoot high-quality film photographs, I’m only using three cameras – my Nikon F100 for 35mm film, or my Rolleiflex Automat MX or my Kowa Super 66 for medium format photos.  These are not “horsing around with experimental photography” cameras.  You have to know your apertures and shutter speeds and film sensitivities.  You can’t just “chimp” the picture as one could do with a digital camera, taking the picture and then looking at the LCD screen and going “ooh, ooh, ah, ah, ooh, ooh” like a chimpanzee.  You have to trust your light meter and know how to read it.  You have to know your lighting conditions and that you only get a limited number of pictures per roll or per cartridge.  And yes, Lightroom does work on scanned film photographs.

As for my other film cameras – the Bull’s-Eye, the Holga, the Nikon EM, my Agfa Chief and my Agfa Clipper Special f/6.3 – these will always be designated for experimental photography.  As long as I clearly designate in my mind that these cameras are for some sort of artistic experiment, anything from sprocket hole photography to splitfilm, from Prokudin-Gorskii photos to long-exposure star trails – then that’s what they’re for.  Experiment, find out what worked, what didn’t work, and move on.

Reading and talking with other photographers has helped me tremendously.  If they can achieve an image in their pictures, and they’re willing to pass this knowledge to me, I want to try what they did.  And I want to try it, and build upon it.  I have photography websites like PetaPixel.com in my Google Reader.  And there’s plenty of online message boards, newsgroups and discussion forums that offer critiques, criticism, construction and challenges.  Sometimes the information helps.  Sometimes there’s more to the information than I expected.

Let me conclude this blog post by saying that I’m not perfect.  Heck, I can look back to when I first purchased the D700, and thought that it would never replace what I was able to accomplish with my old Nikon D70.  And I made that same statement five years before, when I bought the D70 to replace my old Nikon CoolPix 800 that guzzled battery juice like I guzzle grapefruit juice.  I’m still learning.  I’m still experimenting and I’m still trying to make each picture better than the previous roll, than the previous camera chip, than the previous camera.

And as long as I keep pushing myself, keep setting a goal and trying to achieve it, and then trying to pass it in order to reach a new goal… then my photography will improve and more people will enjoy my photos.  Yeah, I’ll still get a clunker shot now and again… but it never hurts to build from those clunkers and use that knowledge to snag superior images.