Well The past month I've done that several times with several photos. I wrote off a picture a long time ago as a shot that just didn't compete with the rest of the batch all because it wasn't what my idea of what a good photo was at the exact point in time. After a while of shooting photos and learning new things and getting a completely fresh perspective on what makes a good photo I noticed that that shot that I wrote off months before was actually, in my opinion, one of my top 5 shots.
My idea of what a good shot was didn't come from a theory lesson about the "laws" of photography but instead came from inspiration and my knowledge that breaking the rules can make a much better shot than when you follow them. So pretty much what I'm trying to say, to people who are getting into photography and reading my blog in hopes that maybe someday I might post something educational, is research. Not books about what makes a good photo but other people's work. Brilliant photographer's work. The internet is awesome so use it. Find a photographer who really inspires you and check his or her website or blog every so often to see the progression of their shots. Study their style and pick apart their photos. Try to figure out how it is that they made each of their photos.
And after all that research don't just copy each of their photos but try to apply those techniques to your own shots and improve on what they do. Also try to find multiple photographers so that you end up with a different style or else you will find that it's a challenge to not copy them. You want a unique style but also a style that appeals to the masses, unless you want no one other than yourself to like your photos, so in order to do that you need to learn the regular and then improve upon it. (That part might not have made sense). But either way what I'm trying to say is that I have changed my view on what I want to see in a photo by researching other photographers incessantly and in my opinion it improved my photographing abilities so take my advice or not, I hope it somehow helps.
Here are a few of the pictures that I changed my mind on at second glance:
This one my brother pointed out all the good things about and got me to like so I guess my point doesn't really apply to it. But I still looked back and decided it was awesome.
This is one that I thought was going to be awesome on my camera but then as soon as it got on the computer I decided it sucked. I still thing it sucks.
This is the one that I was originally talking about that I took inspiration for. Check out Chase Jarvis' work and you might see a bit of a resemblance? I'm not sure though.
The last one below I hated because I automatically put it into black and white. The cool thing to me on this one is that I edited it in black and white then just turned it to colour and left it.
So now that that's all said and done let me know what you think of these shots or even let me know if you've had a similar experience. If you have then let me know what it was and I'll probably post it on the blog with your permission.
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