I've been shooting for a couple of years now, and I'm still developing a style for myself. I understand that learning is something you do along the way, but I find that I'm too critical of own work and I sometimes worry what others think. I have shot many bands and other things that I've put a watermark on (2007, 2008) and have my name attached to, and when I look at those photos now, I almost wish I could take them offline for nobody to see because I don't want people to think I'm not a good photographer. In the grand scheme of things, does your past work determine what people think of you as a photographer? I'm getting better now, and I'm at a point where I'm fairly content with the work that I'm putting out. Is the current work the most important?

This probably sounds silly to some people. I hope there are other people in the same boat as me. I'm only 20 years old, and so I think I get ahead of myself and forget that I have so much time to learn and get better.

Please let me know your thoughts.

Thank you.

hello,

well, you just seem to have a healthy attitude and are keen to keep improving yourself. I was horrified last week to find out one of my old projects (shot 2 years ago) is being published next month. I feel like i have progressed in such a way, that that old shoot doesn't represent my current skills...to me, my current work is the most important & best work. But i'm pretty sure that in 2 years time i will look back at the shoots i'm doing right now, and be as horrified with every mistake i notice then

I just wanted to let you know other people are indeed in the same boat the moment you don't feel you can progress anymore and you stop being critical of yourself, is in my view the moment you should stop shooting all together. Photography evolves so fast that we constantly have to adapt and improve...so i wouldn't worry tomuch about your situation. Its just the way it is when you have work floating around in magazines or on the web.

You should just keep your website up to date, so that when people google you, they'll find the work, that is in your current view, your best work.

ps: sorry for my crap english...trying to type fast and its not my native language

photokid35 wrote:
Is the current work the most important?



I believe that the best work is the most important. I have several photos that are very old and shot when I was just getting a feel for photography, and I still really like them. I have a bunch of photos in my portfolio shot with my D30, which is a dinosaur by today's standards. As long as I like the photo, the photo is technically decent and stylistically relevant, I will keep it in the portfolio.

I agree with Scott and Luc.

As Scott points out, any outstanding work is 'important' - regardless of age. It may be a frequent type shot you get, or once in a lifetime - but it can represent what you're capable of.

And like Luc says: we should always be looking for ways to improve what we do - the moment you stop and become complacent, then we start to not care, and that diminishes our ability to be truly artistic and do the best that we can.

BTW... welcome to FM.

The internet tends to make us all a bit egocentric. We think that because we have a website, or our pictures are displayed somewhere, that everyone sees them. NOT TRUE. For the most part, it is difficult to get the rest of the world to pay attention to your pictures...even the really good ones. That said, if your older work is not as good as you like, don't put any effort into bringing them to the public's attention and they will soon be forgotten...if they are not already. Keep working at it. Make your good photos available and put some effort into getting people to look at them and you will be on the right track.

Thanks for the replies everyone! All good points.

I'll definitely try to keep my work as current as possible. I just hate knowing that crappy old photos with my watermark on them are floating around on places like facebook. I guess those don't really matter though because it's only a select number of people who would see those and google can't see those images anyways.

In enough years, everyone will be too busy making fun of the funny clothes and hairstyles to even notice who the photographer was.

photokid35 wrote:
Thanks for the replies everyone! All good points.

I'll definitely try to keep my work as current as possible. I just hate knowing that crappy old photos with my watermark on them are floating around on places like facebook. I guess those don't really matter though because it's only a select number of people who would see those and google can't see those images anyways.


If you don't like them, then just delete them, or if they were uploaded by someone else, ask that person to delete them.