The other day, I was going through a series of old photos I did years ago. Some of them were amazing. I was humbled to know I had the skills I had back then. Also, saddened that life is such that I’m not able to get much shooting done currently. Not because I can’t go out shooting, it’s not a priority at present for me. I miss those days but I’m focused on writing and raising my family (not excluding the very valuable day job that keeps said family fed).

So… trying not to feel blue about missing out on shooting, I’m writing a few words about things I spotted that went wrong back in the day… as a reminder to not do these mistakes today. I do realize that every now and again, I do make them. Thankfully, not often.

Having the Blues over Blue

In my next post, I will talk about the story around the photos in blue. Today, showing a few of my mistakes from the series. The next post will be called a “Case Study Blue”.

Let’s start with what started off right

The photo shoot started by a wall. Things looked very promising. The sun was soft. The angles seemed pretty good. Got a little carried away in the post editing… typical rookie mistake.

Thinking about Grace and Mercy

Then my friend started getting creative with her poses. This prompted me to start coming up with a few ideas of my own. Well, today I realize that I should be a bit more careful with impromptu testing of ideas. They don’t always come out looking great.

There was a few attempts at doing “stop motion” styled photos for an album. The early days of testing were a blessing. Came in handy in certain projects in that later were done for paid clients. For now, I learned a very valuable lesson in not dragging the shutter too much when doing such photos.

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Of course, there was the attempts at playing off colors. Several photos were ruined in post edits when I tried to bring out or minimize certain colors. Those won’t be shown.

Touching the Outtakes

This was the era where I was too eager to take photos. Instead of cleaning up the room to take the photos… I just jumped right in thinking that I would be able to edit out the furniture in post processing. Clearly, I was drinking way too much digital Kool Aide. I later would salvage a few sessions by cropping the images better (for another post… another day). The cropping didn’t happen until recently, as I learned a whole lot about composition over the years. Today, I’m a bit more careful about how I set up my photos… and I still have to learn a lot more about that. There is no finish line to learning how to frame a photo perfectly.

The mess is not the model’s fault… the photographer wasn’t thinking about ever publishing these pix

He thought he could digitally fix everything… the rookie sure learned he couldn’t.

If only this photo could be recreated with the right background…

After failing miserably with the interior shots, a lesson I didn’t fully appreciate until months after the fact, I went back out to do more photos outside. I allowed my creativity to get ahead of my skills and I tried to pose my friend in ever more creative poses. Looking back, I try no to laugh and cry over the hubris I had back then. I so wish I could redo this set. I’d do a much better job today. But I’ll say the same again in a few years looking back at today.

Million Dollar smile

The eyes says it all

Linking a smile with mile long legs

I would learn how to do 45 degree angled shots so that I can create a colored frame in post edits. Those have always been fun to do. Sometimes, they’re very artistic, other times, just a little distracting.

45 degree shot… when straightened… leaves a cool border effect

In the end, I did get a few good shots. It was a huge learning lesson. Hopefully… I’ve wet your appetite enough for you to come back and see the other photos that came out better. I know it’s not the traditional way to show the ‘bad’ before the good… but why not.

learning how to photoshop out things… the early days

let’s just suspend reality for a moment…with early attempts at photoshop work

Linking a smile with mile long legs

When testing ideas… sometimes… one tries too many ideas at once. Thankfully, the model carries the look just fine

The link for the “Case Study” blue will populate below the day that post goes live. There will be a project post with it… that will have more photos. All those details will be forthcoming in a few days. Thanks for reading, thanks for clicking like, thank you for sharing… and thank you for any feedback you feel so inclined to share.

• Having Blues over Blue - Sharing a few lessons from mistakes I made in my early photo days. It's good to learn from the past. This is a rare case of showing the "bad" before sharing the "good" when feeling blue about photography... like... missing the days of shooting for leisure
• Case Study Blue - In poetry, roses are red and violets are blue... in photography it's all about the right hue Taking inspiration from an old photo session to write a story.... with a few lessons.
• Aqua Blue Session - Taking the best of the Aqua Blue photo session and sharing them as a gallery