ORIGINAL: Juice
This, Gordon, is exactly the kind of criticism that I like to hear. I'm only starting in photography and I appreciate everything you have to say.
The trick is not to let that change even when you've been shooting a while.
I've been shooting for about 7-8 years now, and my mentor (who's been shooting for 30+) STILL wants me to criticize his work, and I still ask him to criticize mine. Granted...i have to look a LOT harder than he does! *lol*
Most of my good pictures are not really intentional. This one is one of those unintentionally good shots. Some days I take hundreds of pictures and only a few turn out good enough to show. I rarely take a picture and say, ''That's the money shot''. And if I do say that, when I get home most times I find out it's not as good as I thought.
None of that is unusual...nor does it go away. The percentages of good:bad will go up over time, but even the best in the world throw away more than they keep. Andy Julia (Caution to those who might not know who he is : Any search for his work will turn up some fairly erotic stuff. He's never, that I know of, ever shot any full or even partial nudity, but you probably don't want to explain some of his work to your kids) once said that he throws away 6-8 shots for every one he keeps. This is a guy who makes tens of thousands of dollars for a set.
Personally, I toss stuff at about 10-12 to 1 on a good day. Of course, the ones I keep aren't anywhere near the kind of stuff a true pro can turn out. On the occasions I'm being paid for my work (not often, and not much *lol*), my ratio is up around 30 or 40:1.
Now, I WILL say that as time goes by, you'll get better at knowing when you "got it"....when THE SHOT you wanted happens. Of course, this is largely true of situations where you'll have multiple opportunities to get "the shot".
Having said all of that, however, I think nearly every photographer on the planet still gets snuck up on. Sometimes that PERFECT shot just shows up out of nowhere, just once. All you can do is hope you have your camera, and rely on instincts to get everything right.
Mike Modano's 503rd goal, making him the highest scoring US born hockey player in NHL history.
*shrug*
Ok, sure, as a season ticket holder I was in the building for all of Nashville's games...but sheesh. Modano could have scored that goal in any one of a number of games...or he coulda been in traffic when he scored it...or he coulda gotten some deflection you never saw...or heck, even something as simple as he coulda scored at the other end of the rink the next period!
That shot's not talent, skill, planning or anything else. It's pure, dumb, luck.
This didn't, of course, stop me from having him sign a copy, and framing it up with a piece of the net.
I guess the point here (besides the chance for me to show off a couple of hockey things *heh*) is that what you're describing isn't anything to be 'ashamed" of or anything like that. The ratio of keepers to throwaways will go up over time...and no matter HOW long you do this, or HOW good you get, you'll still find that much of your best stuff is sheer accident.
The trick, I think, is to do 2 things:
1) Learn from the happy accidents. You've got one with the crashed plane....so perhaps you've learned something about framing, or maybe something about tiny details, or whatever. So long as you learn.
2) Be hyper-critical of your own stuff. Do NOT (and it's INCREDIBLY hard to do, I know) fall in love with a shot because of what's in it. Don't be so thrilled that you 'got the airplane as it went by" or "got the winning basket" or whatever that you overlook obvious flaws in the shot....and they WILL have some, they ALL do...even Andy Julia's *heh*
Be objective, and be critical of your stuff. This isn't to say you can't love a picture because it's a picture of one of your favorite things...it just means recognize it for what it is, and learn from it.
I agree that the photo works. I could not put it in the words you use. All I know is that I like the picture. So, I can tell that you like to break the rules if there is a good enough reason to break them. In this picture, what if I did some post processing to un-break a couple rules...
(before post processing)
(after post-processing)
- Cropped to put the eye on the lower-right third intersection.
- Blurred out the cranes in the sky.
What do you think now? Better or worse?
For me, personally, I like removing the crane. That was one of the few true distractions in the photo, imo.
(I won't go on a photoshop rant here...some other time *heh*)
As for the crop...eh...frankly couldn't care less. I'm not saying it's "worse" that way...just that, for ME, it didn't do anything. In both cases, the eye makes the shot what it is...but since it's not really a "picture of an eye", it doesn't need to be in some "key location", imo. It's almost kinda fun to realize how important the eye is after overlooking it for a few minutes.
Like I say...that's not to say it was a bad idea. Heck, maybe you like the picture better that way. "I just know I like it" is, quite frankly, a PERFECTLY good reason for liking a picture.
Just that, for me, the picture isn't any different either way.
And you're right...I DO like breaking the rules...sometimes even when there's no REASON to. Like I said above..."because I like it" is good enough.
