Dаz
71/365 # Hail to the thief?
Before I say anything today I'd like to say a massive thankyou to everyone who left comments on yesterday's 365 shot - I didn't think much of it (still don't) but the comments you guys left were really encouraging so I'd just like to say thanks to you all - you're awesome!
Now onto today's shot, where I find myself face-to-face with a dilemma. Well, two dilemmas really but they kind of relate.
The last couple of weeks I've felt like I'm settling on a style, one I really like. I can look back and say that I like maybe 90% of the 365 shots I've posted in this time, which is amazing as I'm my own worst critic and usually denounce anything I create as shite.
And while it's great that I'm happy with what I'm doing, I'm now getting (very) worried that I'm getting stuck in a rut - I mean how many more times can I post a shot like this one before it gets old? It's not that I don't like it, I'm happy with the processing, and the words mean something I'll get round to explaining in a minute, but I can feel myself slipping into a groove where I've got no new ideas so default to a heavily processed photo with textures blended over the top. Add some song lyrics and you have the classic default Daz* shot.
I had to process this one to death today because the original shot was out of focus and to be honest, while I'm getting better at using Photoshop and Lightroom, my actual photography skills leave a lot to be desired. I'm half tempted to post the SOOC shot I used here to show you what I mean.
For me it's not enough to cover up a dodgy shot with a bit of processing, I'm in this to get better at taking photographs as much as learning cool processing tricks.
I'm lucky because I have a gang of really great people as contacts, and the wealth of knowledge they've shared with me has helped me so much. I almost feel like I'm conning people when I post these shots these days. I got a comment from Nerboo yesterday saying he was starting feel inadequate when he looked at my pics - now I know this was said tongue-in-cheek but I gotta tell you buddy if you saw the real shot you wouldn't be feeling so bad! You do all sorts of clever and cool things with lighting that I don't understand, proper photography, which is way harder than laying on the processing thick and fast.
So that's part A of my dilemma - I'm struggling for ideas again and very aware that I'm only on day 71.
Part B has been bugging me for ages. As I said earlier, I'm really happy with the style I'm developing, but this style bears a very close resemblance to a true Flickr great - Stephen Poff. To me he's the complete package, fantastic photography skills combined with awesome processing and through the roof creativity. I'm not ashamed to admit that in terms of style his is the one I'd like to emulate. His shots go beyond mere photograpy, they're art. But I think I'm treading a fine line between emulating and bare faced ripping off Stephen's style. Hence the title of today's shot, which by the way I lifted (in true rip-off style) from Radiohead's sixth studio album of the same name.
I use a lot of processing because of the limited space I have in my house - there's only two places inside where I can get decent light and a neutral background, and I can't use my back garden much because (a) it's looks crap and (b) you'd get bored of looking at it, so the processing is a way of bypassing the lack of room and having acrap garden to make my shots a bit more interesting. Not to be confused with interestingness of course. That's my excuse and I'm stickin' to it.
71/365 # Hail to the thief?
Before I say anything today I'd like to say a massive thankyou to everyone who left comments on yesterday's 365 shot - I didn't think much of it (still don't) but the comments you guys left were really encouraging so I'd just like to say thanks to you all - you're awesome!
Now onto today's shot, where I find myself face-to-face with a dilemma. Well, two dilemmas really but they kind of relate.
The last couple of weeks I've felt like I'm settling on a style, one I really like. I can look back and say that I like maybe 90% of the 365 shots I've posted in this time, which is amazing as I'm my own worst critic and usually denounce anything I create as shite.
And while it's great that I'm happy with what I'm doing, I'm now getting (very) worried that I'm getting stuck in a rut - I mean how many more times can I post a shot like this one before it gets old? It's not that I don't like it, I'm happy with the processing, and the words mean something I'll get round to explaining in a minute, but I can feel myself slipping into a groove where I've got no new ideas so default to a heavily processed photo with textures blended over the top. Add some song lyrics and you have the classic default Daz* shot.
I had to process this one to death today because the original shot was out of focus and to be honest, while I'm getting better at using Photoshop and Lightroom, my actual photography skills leave a lot to be desired. I'm half tempted to post the SOOC shot I used here to show you what I mean.
For me it's not enough to cover up a dodgy shot with a bit of processing, I'm in this to get better at taking photographs as much as learning cool processing tricks.
I'm lucky because I have a gang of really great people as contacts, and the wealth of knowledge they've shared with me has helped me so much. I almost feel like I'm conning people when I post these shots these days. I got a comment from Nerboo yesterday saying he was starting feel inadequate when he looked at my pics - now I know this was said tongue-in-cheek but I gotta tell you buddy if you saw the real shot you wouldn't be feeling so bad! You do all sorts of clever and cool things with lighting that I don't understand, proper photography, which is way harder than laying on the processing thick and fast.
So that's part A of my dilemma - I'm struggling for ideas again and very aware that I'm only on day 71.
Part B has been bugging me for ages. As I said earlier, I'm really happy with the style I'm developing, but this style bears a very close resemblance to a true Flickr great - Stephen Poff. To me he's the complete package, fantastic photography skills combined with awesome processing and through the roof creativity. I'm not ashamed to admit that in terms of style his is the one I'd like to emulate. His shots go beyond mere photograpy, they're art. But I think I'm treading a fine line between emulating and bare faced ripping off Stephen's style. Hence the title of today's shot, which by the way I lifted (in true rip-off style) from Radiohead's sixth studio album of the same name.
I use a lot of processing because of the limited space I have in my house - there's only two places inside where I can get decent light and a neutral background, and I can't use my back garden much because (a) it's looks crap and (b) you'd get bored of looking at it, so the processing is a way of bypassing the lack of room and having acrap garden to make my shots a bit more interesting. Not to be confused with interestingness of course. That's my excuse and I'm stickin' to it.