this was my little mobile workstation at the wedding i shot last weekend.
Bonnie just wrote a post and wants to get more visual with her blog... I've been thinking about my blog here a lot latley too... I wanted to write just some thoughts out but wondered if i could even do so without posting some sort of picture since this is my photography blog... this picture took a few attempts at uploading too so I almost posted without a picture... something I have not yet done on this blog. Obviously there are no RULES its my blog I can do what i want but... I'm rambling...
I go through this stage every once in a while... (more often than I'd like to admit) where I see someone elses work and just get so discontent with my own. Last night I saw these pictures here of Clara's (whom I dont' know) following blog links and am just in awe. They just have that 'artsy' feel... I think my pics are ussualy technically sound but I feel I really lack creativity and artistic edge in my work. I think that these pics can be classified with the whole 'deviant art' scene... kind of post modern emo art. Dark, simple and clean but extreemly communicative. I love this stuff... but this style doesn't show up in my work. Maybe its just not who i am... its like me trying to play heavy rock music, i could kind of fake it but it wasn't me.
I'm not searching for compliments on my work, and this isn't a competition with anyone so we don't need to compare... but i just get frustrated. Yesterday I deleted a BUNCH of pics from my portfolio... and as I flip through these past two months of work that I've been posting I'm really not satisfied. There are SOME good pictures, but there are some pics that I posted that are utter crap. My original intention though was to just GET OUT and shoot everyday, i think this is the most consistent I've been with anything in my life ever... so at least I'm meeting that goal. I've learned a lot too over the past few months too just by getting out and shooting on the regular.
I'm also frustrated that the pics from the first wedding set I posted didn't all show up. Does anyone know what that is about? Does blogger have a limit? I remember my friend Michaela had this problem with a blog she set up last year for the movie she was helping on, but when I went there to find the link all of her pics showed up.
I'm feeling kind of uninspired... I've got some trips coming up that hopefully will stoke that fire.
I tried backing up my WHOLE harddrive last night and it didn't work. I'm going to need a external harddrive soon anyway, two years worth of pictures is filling mine up.
Where I'm getting the money for that... i don't know.
I guess its good that I'm not satisfied with my current state of art... there is always room to improve. I try to constantly look at other peoples work.
Two big peices of advice that Hannah Westphall said when she got back from her School of Documentary Photography (Michaela was in this school too) was to constantly look at other peoples work and figure out why you like it and just get out there and shoot.
I try to do those things... and I try to always tell people that are asking me advice on photography these two things. Maybe at another time I'll post all of the places that I frequent for inspiration.
blah blah blah,
jim baker
8 comments:
Wow, that was a lot of words for you. But that's good! There exists a stream of consciousness beneath that pretty picture. I think you are having a mean critic day. But that comes with the territory. Maybe you should just take a nap. Your work is great. It IS you. And you are young and will go through lots of changes with it. There's not a thing wrong with it. It's just what's so right now.
HI Jim,
I am not always inspired. I don't always get the shot. But I sure try. I just got back from my trip. No good shots from the Shuttle launch. Not bad, but not what I was looking for.
But I got some really neat shots of biketoberfest. So not all was lost.
I have a friend in Chicago who did my website. I have to admit. I am not pleased with it or the way he groups things. But I am not able to change things around. I will work on that problem in the near future.
I have some commercial work I have to get done in the next few days. Which is good for a paycheck. But not very inspiring. I'll make it fun anyway.
Have an awesome day.
Carol
i love your wedding photos, but my favorites are always your regular ones.. like of streets, and nature. those are always your best (just my opinion)
i agree with bonnie above. you are still pretty young.. you're work will grow as you continue to grow, and continue to learn more and more. i feel like your ywam school in hawaii is going to be so good for you, and i'm so excited for you:)
keep it up jimboooo
hey man, I feel the same way sometimes. I look at Marc Adamus' photos of nature and stuff and think, "wow, my stuff is like a 3-year-old scribbling on the wall or something."
But, hey, your stuff is good, and it can only get better as you keep going and learning and want to improve. And yeah, the YWAM school is going to be amazing :D
See you in a week!
thanks everybody for taking the time to read this... communication is such an interesting thing... a buddy and I were talking last nite and he said 'just because your transmitting information doesn't mean you're communicating'
i think that the majority of people will skip over all the text unless they know you or are in the frame of mind to actually read your rant... i probably won't be writing much on this thing, written word isn't the point here... photography is the point.
thanks for the encouragement... i'm glad i'm not content with my work (i think) and you're right it is a good prespective to have that i am still young and can grow into it... I'm just impatient...
Hannah and Jeff... thats still top secret info not being released until November... come on now!
see ya
jim baker
wow i looked at just a few of your pictures, and they're pretty amazing i must say.
as for mine.. haha i like to think my pictures are mediocre, but really they just blehh ahah, but thanks for referring to my pictures anyway :)
do you edit your pictures via photoshop at all?
clara, yup i photoshop too... thanks for stopping by.
whoa i was randomly going through ur october cuz it had like 39 posts on it so i was curious and found this post and wow i was surprised by the coincidence and everything haha. art is such a expressive but inexplicable performance. :D
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