I went through a short series of some of my earliest photographs. That took place from September 2014, when I bought my first DSLR camera, until the end of 2015. During that time I learned a few things here and there and went out exploring and documenting, but I had much more to learn. For the beginning of that, I used mostly auto settings for everything. I learned how to start using exposure settings properly to achieve the desired results, which I experimented with quite a bit. At the very end of 2015, the last day I did photographs of that year was when I first switched up shooting in JPEG to photographing using RAW. So it’s from this point in time, I have my past edited photographs with the RAW image files to look back on.
As I go through these images, I’m also bringing some into Lightroom Classic, my editing software, to take a new look at them. I’m happy to share the results and my thoughts on that with you, as well as share any tips that come to mind as I do so.
Photograph #1
The first image here is nothing super spectacular. I was waiting to get on the bus to go to Munsan, Paju in South Korea. I think I was more so just testing out and practicing with this image and probably the majority of the images follow suit. This is not something that I would photograph today. And a tip that I would offer to newer photographers is not to take this type of image. It is common for people getting into street photography to take shots of people from behind. It’s generally nothing of interest to most people who will view the image and it is done all the time by beginner street photographers. Just a heads up there!
Photograph #2
This is what could have been an interesting scene, except I didn’t do it very well at all. If you take a look at the image, most of it is out of focus. That’s because I made a massive mistake on this one. I photographed this scene at an aperture of f/1.8. This means that only the narrowest area that I used to focus on would be in focus and the rest would be blurry. This can be a great thing if you’re using this technique skillfully. Otherwise, you’ll likely have a throwaway image.
Photograph #3
Honestly, this is probably a scene that I would photograph again! I took a couple of photographs of this area before moving on, and I don’t think I ever attempted to edit one until just now. I guess I didn’t have much interest in it at the time. It’s interesting how tastes change over time!
Photograph #4
Not anything super extraordinary, but I still kind of like it! It certainly reminds me of my time in Korea.
Photograph #5
I kind of like this image. I did post a copy of it on my social media a couple of years back. I believe at the time, I was also looking through my older images and selecting some out. The image could have been better. I loved these traditional structures and walls when I came across them while exploring, I’d almost always stop to take some photographs of such a scene. I’m sure I have higher quality examples in my collection in the years that followed this day.
Photograph #6
This is another image of the structure from above. I’m still not sure what this one was, other than knowing it marked something historical.
Photograph #7
I walked past this abandoned church and photographed the top of it from afar. Looking back I should have been more observant to the angle that I photographed on. That is one thing that I struggled with a lot. I remember having some people online complaining that my horizons were never straight! 😅
That is something that makes a huge difference in the final image. You’ll generally want to have your horizon straight in most cases. In the photograph above, we are not met with that problem, but still, we see a similar issue. I should have walked further to make sure I was aligned with the building before photographing it. There’s little that could be down about the upward angle of the shot, but the horizontal plane would have been much more pleasing to the eye.
Photograph #8
The same issue as the above photograph is clear! I should have properly aligned myself with the building to capture it, rather than shoot from an angle. I’m still happy that I took the photograph in the end because I kind of really like the vintage-like sign. (I don’t know what it is, but I’m guessing it might be an old Korean movie or something like that?)
Photograph #9
The final image I have to share with you today is this one. Again, it’s nothing super extraordinary. Rather, it’s very ordinary. Nothing really of super interest, but it’s a practice photograph. I wouldn’t ever suggest posting or publishing photographs like this to anyone! But when you’re out practicing, do it! Practice! Take shots on a limb, practice nailing your focus, and experiment! Because… why not?
That’s a wrap for today! I’ll be continuing to share photographs in my photo journal. If you’d like to learn photography with me, consider signing up for my Photography Mentoring Program. I’m currently offering it free of charge.
January 2016
Photograph(s): #4399~4762