How has your personal photography changed over the decades?

I have been thinking about how my approach to photography has changed over the slightly more than six decades that I have been taking pictures and making photographs (I view only some of my pictures as "photographs"). The technology has certainly changed a great deal from the days of the Argus C3 that I started with through the whole line of Nikon Fs, Hasselblads, Arca Swiss view cameras into the digital world where my iMac, Macbook Ai and Software are as much a part of my photography as my studio and darkroom used to be. The transition from chemistry to digital has been profound.

I reflect back on my days in art school, time with Ansel Adams, my fellow photographers in Seattle in the '60s and '70s... all fond memories. The expansion of the horizon represented by digital image creation and management has been transformative. I now see my camera and lenses as only minor components in the process -- much like brushes and canvas when creating a painting. Digital image state of the art today is basically at the point that if you can imagine it, you can create it.

Today I see my camera much as I did the sketchbook I carried with me in art school and for years afterward in which I would capture visual ideas that I would later execute on some larger scale. The captured image for me today is that same point of departure that a sketch in the sketchbook was.

Today I spend more time looking to do things I could never do with a camera, light, chemistry and paper in the '60s. I rarely will attempt to do a digital emulation of a photograph I could have made back then and instead look to do things only digital imagery make possible.

I seek to explore, build on and visually expand on what might be considered traditional photography. I wonder if Degas or Rothko or Pollack would work in digital images today and what they might produce.

I'd love to hear from others about how they see their work today compared to years past. Merry Christmas to all and a Happy Visual New Year.

The last few years, more monochrome, less equipment, usually just an XE1 and 40mm equivalent lens. No conscious effort to change, it just happens.

A minor change, but I came to prefer wider angle photos and the cell phone came along to satisfy my wants in that respect.

I've loosened up a bit. Shoot a bit more spontaneously, willing to take on more and different subject matter and content. In some cases it's not just my photographing or photography that's changed, it's my eye and tastes that have changed. I see a bit differently now with more experience under my belt. And I'm going back through older files finding some photos to work on that I didn't appreciate or like back then but that, today, I find have potential. For me, it has little to do with cameras or technology. Edited March 13, 2018 by Norma Desmond

Digital has meant an encouragement to shoot more images at different settings.

 

I still shoot lots of old film cameras, but for serious image capture I love digital more and more.

For me is now I am trying to use my tripod less and less. In the past I have used a tripod at 12PM on a summers day (!). Now I see them as tools, less pixel peeping, less concerned with the greatest and latest, I am quite happy to provide some noise reduction with 12,800 ISO images cos a tripod wasn't that appropriate or that I was just out with friends at a place that was quite low ambient light. I have also taken a few shots as have others at my camera club with their phones. To be less anal with photography and enjoy it more, there is life other than photography. Getting more second stuff now for the past 1yr, looking at getting a Fuji XT1 for travelling, at home I don't mind it so much with a dSLR cos I have a car and I am only going out for a 1hr shoot. I have also got a Ricoh GR used when I am amongst friends and family.

I've never received Christmas wishes in March until now, but thank you! :-) But to answer your question, all I can say is that I have become more refined. I also don't carry a camera with me which I did for a time.

I experiment more with image manipulation not practical (or too expensive) with film, including exposure, focus bracketing and tone mapping. Last summer, I re-purposed a dense filter I bought for the solar eclipse (it was a densely cloudy day in Chicago) to take extremely long exposures (5-15 minutes). If you shoot from an elevated angle, people and cars disappear, even in a crowded city scape. Film suffers from reciprocity failure in a minute or less, whereas digital is linear throughout. I cut my teeth using M2 and AG-1 flash bulbs, eventually electronic flash. Now I seldom use flash at all, and then only to fill shadows. I continue to make extensive use of a tripod, however, and never travel without one. However it is for uniformity rather than sharpness, for which image stabilization works admirably. While you can shoot stitched panoramas and bracketed shots by hand, variations between frames require cropping after the frames are aligned. Group shots work better if they are consistently centered and level, and a tripod frees you to interact with the subject(s).

 

Once I used a set of contrast filters for B&W, and color temperature converters. Now the only filters in my kit are clear (for lens protection) and polarizers. Even the latter can be emulated in software. Bracketed exposures replace split grad filters (which I seldom bothered to use). Stacked exposures have a similar effect as using neutral filters to get long exposures, blurring moving water, for example, despite short shutter speeds.

 

While I embrace technology, the low incremental cost of digital means I can shoot each scene in a variety of ways, not just as a backup incase there is a defect in the film or processing. This is back to basics, IMO.

Film suffers from reciprocity failure in a minute or less, whereas digital is linear throughout.

 

Two words-if you want to shoot film-

 

Fuji Acros

 

Per the data sheet, it needs no correct out to 2 minutes, and for anything past there only needs 1/2 stop.

I started shooting B/W in the Army in 67 and then included color after getting out in 70. However after the labs closed up i went back to B/W with home processing. So its full circle I guess. Subjects are friends, family and general hobby shots and that has not changed.

Amazingly, I haven't changed much since the late 60's when I started. I shoot color now, with digital, which I enjoy.

I spent a lot of time in the news business and that largely defined what all of my work looked like. Not so long ago I was told I covered a wedding like I was covering a murder scene. These days I do more work in portraiture and just things that I find along the way. I don't shoot everything as though it was to be published. After something like 14 years of almost all digital I've gone backwards and am shooting more film. What's more, much of it is b&w and I'll print it in my darkroom/garage. I'm rediscovering the things that brought me to photography in the beginning.

 

Rick H.

For me I think there is and has always been room for improvement. But I think I have improved. I shoot less number of shots of the same subject but get more keepers. I am pickier of what and when to press the shutter. Maybe all those hours in post kicking myself saying why didnt I do this or that and it could have made the shot better paid off. More experience and practice under my belt, I have tried more things and found techniques I like that work for me. I still keep reading and studying and paying attention to what others are teaching and trying different things that spark my interest.

 

My gear has gotten better and my tool box bigger over the years so I can do more and/or better than I did before and my post processing has improved so I think I get better results.

 

There are still many things I want to try that I just dont have time for yet. So many photograhers inspire me. There is more than enough out there to experience and try to keep me busy for a lifetime so that is always evolving and keeping photography fun. It just feels like it gets better with age.

Oh, one more thing: after many years of using 8GB cards, I finally became comfortable enough to step up to 16GB.

"How has your personal photography changed over the decades?"... good question. i feel I am caught in a time warp or perhaps I simply lack creativity and imagination. I got into photography in my teens from Life and Look magazines, "The Family of Man" and other such books with images of mid-20th century street photography, the depression era, etc. Call me a copy-cat, a neanderthal, whatever, but I prefer mainly to find those "the way we were" scenes and capture them and document them in a (hopefully) creative way. Of course while I seek out scenes and images that harken to a somewhat bygone past I am not averse to change. What got me into photography - as a serious hobby, fortunately I have a day job to put food on the table - from those early teen year influences was documenting the small things that make life interesting, preserving them as reminders. I made a self-published book last year that I titled "Unnoticed No Longer". This sense is what motivated my photography in the mid-1960's and still does today.

I added digital and am working toward developing my own black and white film. Never shot much black and white but am looking forward to more. Still love using the film cameras of the 60’s, 70’s, and early 80’s. Digitizing many years of old negatives to share with family members.

Moved from photography magazine subscriptions to places like this and YouTube for information.

Better care of negatives now than in my youth.

Still an enjoyable hobby for me.

Oh, when I started to photograph my photos were amateur incomprehensible and even funny, I think so at all. When I decided to take photos seriously, I read a lot of useful literature, watched video lessons and watched many other works, sat in the exhibition, was inspired by the work of professionals, photographed and searched for my style.

I exhibited my photos on criticism on different sites and listened to advice, gradually I understood how to make a photo unic, better and eye-catching. And I came to the conclusion that not everything depends on a good camera, you need to have the skill.There were many sites that helped me for example ( useful tips for beginners )

I hope it `ll be useful for someone !

....and ohhh, my photo changed a looot ! :)...