Progression - show you first shot posted and your last (or at least close to it)

[GrahamH]

Late night musing, I think my pics have improved as a result of being on this sight (pun intended). Have to search for earlier ones myself and will post later (too late).
Thought it was a good idea and didn't want to waste it.

So, let's see your shots of days gone past and a recent one. Please indicate how much time between the two (or not ).

Graham

[NorthernFocus]

I'll play. I haven't been a member here that long but can meet the spirit of the rules I guess. I started shooting birds in 2007. Mostly big birds, particularly geese and eagles. Below is the earliest eagle shot I can find in my files. Taken from about as close as I could get and even then generously cropped. The second shot is one from last summer. Nearly a full frame image and I don't just shoot them in trees any more

[Black Pearl]

I think the first shots I posted were taken with a Professional DSLR bolted to a tripod and fired with a remote release - the last one I'm pretty sure was taken one handed with an iPhone.

Is that progression?

[GrahamH]

Checking back to October 2011 (when I first joined this site), my first and my last (March 2013).
Seems my range has increased if nothing else, but I would like to think that I have improved in PP as well as in camera.
Going back to film days, I can certainly see a large difference (but nothing accessible digitally from those days).
Graham
Older

Most recent


One from the archives - summer 2004

[GrahamH]

Hi Dan - First one is nice - but that`s about it. I would be happy with it, great environmental shot. But the second one - really has a much greater wow factor.

Hi Robin (you`re close to my old home, Gateshead). Why not post the difference and we can see? It's the eye that changes and the camera is merely a tool.

Graham

[Black Pearl]

Gateshead eh? Bit different to where you are now then?

First post here: Aye, aye
Nikon D200 + Sigma 10-20mm - 5 RAW shots HDR processed with (I think) Photomatix Pro


Recent post: Mini Competition #1541
Apple iPhone 5 - cameras own HDR processed with Snapseed on the iPad.


Quite a few more shots in the original thread but this I thought matched subject best.

[Brownbear]

From about 1 1/2 years ago



From about 4 months ago



And still learning lots..


I just realized that I did not read this posting correctly, my apologies

The first photo I ever posted here was actually (from about a year and a quarter ago)



The last photos posted that I like (because I often post photos just to learn and some of them are bad, or in some cases my own judgement of my photos is poor, ie my cows and herons)



And this one from a couple of months ago because it is one of my better bird in flight photos.



Still I think I'm progressing because part of the learning process is having lapses, trying new things and making mistakes.

[GrahamH]

Hi Robin,
Yes,a heck of a change. Gateshead to York, to Middlesbrough, to Manchester, to Toronto, to Georgetown (Grand Cayman).

What a difference between the two pics, but very much the same type of eye. I do detect a change in the frame . Good eye for the clouds and that really makes a difference to an image of course. I would say the first image looks very formal - for a client. The second image looks more personal. The eye is the same but the reason for the shot seems to have differed significantly. Both very good with completely different stories to tell.

Graham

[GrahamH]

Hi Christina,
Reminds me of a quote (and probably badly passed on by me), it it's not good enough, you aren't close enough. Well, certainly the second one is a lot closer. Great environment around the horse (as well as being seasonal). Ears not clipped, lovely shot.

When I was doing more birding I would classify in different zones. Identification (crappy shot, but it's all have), bird on a stick (more detail, but little of interest other than the subject) and action shot (bird easily identified but far more wow). Very much like Dan's shots earlier (except the bird on a stick is a very good example, not like mine were).
Nice second shot.
Graham

[Brownbear]

Hi Graham,
Great advice. Truly appreciated. Your eagle shot is stunning. The only shot I have of an eagle is way up high in the sky, and you know about my herons. I'm learning that I have to get closer and I'll make it my goal to do so this year.

Thank you.

[Dave Humphries]

I'll be "found out" if I play this game

[Geoff F]

If I go back a few years I am delving into film camera shots. I think my first digital was around 2003.

Looking back, I think my biggest problem in those days was a failure to understand shutter speed; particularly with regard to camera shake and subject movement. And those earlier semi auto film cameras often came up with impossible settings because of the film speed.

Once you had loaded your film you were stuck with it. No variable Iso like digital cameras. So if you had ASA 100 loaded you either had to lose shutter speed or aperture. Eventually, I mostly used ASA 800 and accepted a grainy image rather than trying to shoot a handheld action shot at 1/20 with a 200 mm third rate lens!

These examples are all of similar subjects. Starting with a couple of film camera shots which didn't work out too badly. Although they would have had some editing during scanning.



Dredging at the fish quay, although I can't remember which camera, possibly an Olympus OM40. Probably around 2000 or 2001.

And also at the fish quay from around the same time, pulling up a store box; with my fishing boat alongside the quay.



This would have worked OK with a slightly faster shutter speed.

And another shot alongside the quay with my crew holding a decent sized ray. By now, 2003, I had gone digital with a Canon Powershot G2. I purchased it secondhand for half price; they originally cost a staggering £700.



And finally. Five years later than the previous dredging shot. By now, I was attempting to get clever with my digital shooting and editing but the shutter speed was still a little too slow for the scene.



When I first went computerised, I couldn't make any sense of the poor quality software I was attempting to use, both for text work and photo editing. So I was about to 'take a hammer to my computer' including the massive 6 GB hard drive!

Then a friend lent me a copy of Micrografx Picture Publisher 8 and suddenly things started to make sense. A free copy of Serif Page Plus 8 also worked sensibly for my text work.

One thing I have noticed when looking through my older photos is how few actually made it into 'keepers' compared with today. And now I am ditching better images than those just to try saving space on a 500 GB hard drive plus a same sized external drive!

And for today's photos, often of similar subjects. Here for example, are the 2013 photos from my Weekly Project.

Project 2013 - Weekly Photos

But my camera/lens and editing software are massively better than when I first started so it is uncertain how my abilities have improved. Although my understanding of shutter speed and aperture is certainly better now; but I still get things wrong!

[Plumcrak]

I'll play also, what the heck. I have been looking at some older shots that I have taken over the years and thought, What the heck was I looking at??

Awhile ago...


and after some great comments and critique from the helpful folks on this site...


More recent...

[bowneracing99]

First!

Canon Xti

And last (these were for laughs)

Canon 6D

[rpcrowe]

I am not sure that there would be any great differences in quality between the images that I first posted on Cambrige in Colour and my latest images. I joined CiC about five years ago and I have been a photographer for about 55-years; so the 5-years since I joined CiC is but a small fraction of my total photography career.

However, I think that there might be a difference in the looks of my images since I originally tried uploading my images directly from my computer but about four years ago began linking to my smugmug.com gallery images. I think that the smugmug linking is a better way to place images onto CiC.

[jeeperman]

This sunset is the first image I think I ever posted here and the Heron I believe was the first bird I ever posted both sometime very early 2011 within 6 months of my first DSLR after a 15 yr layoff shooting only P&S. The growth may not show through so well as these first two images remain some of my favorites....but there has been growth.






This Seascape is my most recent landscape and the Owlet is my favorite of my most recent bird images.

[allenlennon]

First photo posted in June 2011

IMG_0390 by AllenLennon, on Flickr

My latest

IMG_5842 by AllenLennon, on Flickr

do believe because of this site my skill and techniques with the camera and PP has somewhat advanced a tiny bit.

[lindalee]

First one




Latest one



Still trying to figure out the uploading part to threads so please forgive if the images duplicate or do not show. thanks Linda

[KennyF]

I love the beach shot Paul. Is the "smokey" water a function of long exposure time or how was it got?

Kenny

[jeeperman]

Thank you, Kenny. Yes, that image was a 20 sec exposure. ISO 100 f14 and 11mm. I used a 10 stop ND.