Do you actually like your own work?

There are a few I love enough to get put onto a canvas and hung. Some I like, the rest that I keep I'm fairly ambivalent about.
 
Seems I'm in the minority. I often look through my shots and feel really pleased with them, I don't keep a shot if I don't love it.
 
just think of it this way

5 blurry shots is a mistake
100 is a style
 
Chris.

You should be happy with the images you produce but I think only that as when and if you adopt the attitude of "I love my images they can't get any better" is the day you stop learning and getting better!

I definately think of you aren't happy, you should improve, and try to get to that level where you are happy all the time.

In 3 years I started off as unhappy, then went to happy after a year and even though there is a difference the size of a planet between now and a year ago, my mindset is the same.

Recorgnise a good photo but always improve ;)
 
It is a difficult one!

For me, the biggest reason why I dislike my shots is down to the light. So for the past 3 or 4 years I only take photos when the light is right, if I can help it. That means that I may not pick my camera up for months at a time. Ignoring family snaps or the odd family wedding that I have shot, I enjoy shooting wildlife and landscapes, but will only take those photos when I know the light is good and I have the necessary time to take the shots.

To give you an example, the last landscape type shots I took were in June 2011 at 4:30am. I took about 5 photos, and 3 of them are hanging on my wall. The time prior to that, was June 2010, I ran up Mam Tor around 7pm, took 3 individual shots and a pano (either 7 or 9 shots) and printed the pano, though I am happy with the other three. The time prior to that was in October 2009, I was in Ogwen Valley in N. Wales around 3pm near Cwm Idwal, took 3 or 4 photos, 1 of which is printed.

As you can probably tell, I am reasonably happy with my landscape shots and have a high keeper rate. Don't get me wrong there are still improvements that I can make in each shot, but I am consistently happy enough with them.

Wildlife is a bit of a different matter as most of my issues are external to the actual photograph. I am lucky that I mainly shoot wildlife on my annual trip to Botswana. Over the years I have worked on composition of the animals etc and a few years ago I was consistently happy enough with the composition, but the light was letting many of the shots down. Now, I don't pick my camera up between 7:30am and 3:30pm if I am there in August / September. My shots have improved vastly due to the nicer light; but to improve further I need to self drive so I can position the truck exactly where I want it to be for the best possible background and then sit and wait for the right pose. Likewise I also want a Sigma 120-300 f2.8 OS as I find 280mm at f4 limiting (too much DoF at times and too dark at others) and a 500L would be fab for the birds (the 500mm primes just give the photos a certain look that I love). But the lenses are expensive (the 500L is a pipe dream if I am honest, as a hobby-ist I can't justify the price of a small car etc on what to me is essentially a toy as it doesn't earn me any money), and as such I may never get round to buying them, so I may never reach the point where I am getting shots I am consistently happy enough with. :shrug: But it will not stop me from trying to work round the limitations of the kit I have at the time, as to me that is all part of the fun! :thumbs:
 
maninsuitcase said:
A lot is gear limited, I can't afford very good gear

The rest I look at as a lack of talent or skill for failing to spot what sucked at the time I fired the shutter. Sadly I am very pessimistic about most things and especially so when it revolves around my personal skills.
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Same here on both counts, first because of my subjects (2 expensive daughters:lol:). The second I am very similar, and I think you might find it's pretty common with this game. For me, it's a hobby (for those of us who dont make money from it) for perfectionists, and it really brings out the worst of my perfectionist side at times which I dont particularly like:shake:

I look back at my eldest daughter (age 4) baby pics and cringe how bad they are on my then G12 asd I was just getting into photography (to be expected, but because they arent 'perfect' in my eyes I get frustrated at myself - silly really). Expect this to get a lot worse as my skills slowly improve:lol:

My youngest daughter (10 months) has much nicer baby pics, I'm 4 years on with it, better gear helps a bit (yes it does - if you know how to use it, dont care what anyone says or we'd all be using a P&S), but I know 10 fold about the game than i did before, and how to get the best from the better gear (that's the important bit for me anyway) - only a D90 and sb600, and a couple of OK lenses, but thats fine.

Still not where I want to be but nearly there (happy to just document my daughters lives, dont want to make money from this), most find my pictures the last year very good, but I could pick maybe 10 from 5000 that I'm happy with - quite silly:cuckoo:
I'm not a very competitive person, but a perfectionist, fine to an extend, but i'll bin pics at glance that folk would think superb:bonk: It's a perfectionists dream (or nightmare:thinking:) photography IMO
 
Ive only been trying to take photos for a few months and not just snapping, you know taking care over the image.

I went on holiday to Scotland and hated almost every single photo i took, my gf with her happy snapper got the best image of the week.

But I am starting to see photos when i drive about , i cant photograph it yet etc but I feel I am getting there.

I did take one photo I was very pleased with and got good feedback on it when i put it up here. But mostly I hate everything I take. They all seem rubbish.
 
Im not always satisfied with my pictures either, probably over critical like most people on here, always a little suprised when my wife says she really likes one that i think isnt, so i suppose if people like them thats what matters.

An example of this is my daughter wanted a kitten when we moved house, we got her one and i was taking some shots of the cat just playing with camera settings when my daughter gave the kitten a hug, and took about 3 shots 2 were crap, eyes partly shut, movement, that sort of thing 1 was ok. A few months later for my birthday my wife bought me a 20x16 print, i was quite put out that she got someone to take a picture of our daughter and cat, until i realised it was that very picture! So other peoples opinions are always valued even if you dont really like what they have to say.
 
treeman said:
But don't ever stop being critical of your own work, though at the same time don't let self doubt take over, it can be very destructive.
.
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Well said, Mark. This is one of the things i love about photography. It really teaches you so much about life in general. Be it photography or life, the above statement holds good.
 
Errr, no, pretty much all of it I sewer flaws in. Even of subjects I'm fairly good with. My family, friends etc say I'm good (including ones who tend to not go for pointless flattery), random strangers think I'm good, but I can only see where I've gone wrong.
 
When i started 99% of my images went straight to the bin, but i was chuffed with what was left, as i gained some knowledge the keeper rate went up but strangely my satisfaction went down.

Of late nothing ive captured has brought any great joy, may be a temporary thing, but camera has not been used in anger for a while.
 
Well for me I'm pretty happy with the images I have been taking of late. Although I do sometimes go out and come back with nothing I like, but mainly when I know I could've and should've done better. I've only been at it a year and I can see a marked improvement in what I'm doing. I know I'm not the best photographer but for me as long as I can see myself improving and gaining knowledge and skills ill be happy. I think, try to know where you are as a photographer, know your strengths and weaknesses and try to work on them.
 
joescrivens said:
Seems I'm in the minority. I often look through my shots and feel really pleased with them, I don't keep a shot if I don't love it.
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Looking at your websites Joe, I'm not surprised you're really pleased! Fabulous work, I especially love the Peak district photos. :-)
 
Out of 10,000 shots, I've only got about 7 I kept as good shots, Im still a beginner but post production can make the dull images pop out.
 
I only like the odd shot that I take. It's very rare that I am proud of one of the images I've taken. The ones I keep are merely satisfactory anything that I hate automatically gets deleted.

I am my own worst critic which does help me strive to be a better photographer but it does have it's downside. I have friends that take much better photos than myself and unfortunately I end up comparing myself to them.

But I know I'm only trying to do the best with the equipment I have and I'm constantly learning.
 
I recently looked back critically at my work from many years ago. I recall that in my late teens / early twenties I was not pleased with any of my shots from my first film SLR. There were keepers for sure, for personal memories, but nothing I would consider showing publicly as is practiced today.

Examining my scanned early shots today I have found that they were not as bad as I thought at the time. Very few are super sharp, I always struggled with manual focus and could not afford those early AF SLRs, but I am less concerned about that now. I see good composition, good exposure (sometimes), story telling.

I also find that looking back only a few months also makes a big difference, I often find gems in my "crap bag" where a lot of my stuff goes on initial evaluation. So continue to be self critical, but don't bin anything and open up that crap bag once in a while, you will be surprised what you find.
 
Hi iamchrisphoto I am new to this forum and was really interest in reading your post and your thoughts regarding personal critique - I myself am also self critical, and sometimes wrestle with myself in relation to my work.

As a self taught photographer, I have only myself as judge and jury on my work. Starting from tomorrow I will embarked on a Photography course at Uni. I will use this time to understand the Art of photography and learn as much as I can about different styles and concepts.

On my introduction to the course, we had several Industry speakers come to talk to our class. They themselves also addressed the same topic as you iamchrisphoto and gave the advice that at some stage we will all have this feeling. They also said to believe in your abilities and find a way to rediscover the reason you love your own Photography.

Thanks again for posting this and for everyone who has shared their viewpoint :)
 
My simple reply to the OP.

Well it gets me out of bed in the morning. One day I will take the perfect picture (oh crap, what do I do then?)
 
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