Let me claim for the record that I am an amateur photographer, emphasis on the word amateur. As a matter of fact, the thought of taking photos used to overwhelm me. I didn't think I had the "photographer's eye" to take stunning photos but I would have settled for photos that just weren't...awful.
When I first gave myself permission to take photos, I was on a trip thru Europe. Who in the world could travel to Europe and not take pictures? Not even me. Paris was the first stop on our four-Country tour. Think Eiffel Tower, The Louvre, Notre Dame. OK got the image in your mind?...Great!
So, there I was at The Louvre wanting to take a picture of my two friends in front of the famous Glass Pyramid. I positioned them so I could capture them and the Pyramid. I took several photos. Since I was new to the photography thing I figured I should take some extras. Just in case. (Those were the days before digital).
For the remainder of the trip I took photos, bunches of photos. The beautiful architecture of Prague, the fetching Austrian mountaineer in the train station in Vienna, the ornate government buildings in Budapest. I was excited about the pictures and could not wait to have them developed once I got back to the US.
Much to my horror the pictures were awful. (Really, I'm not just saying that to be self deprecating) I had roll after roll of bad pictures. The lighting was off, the composition was non-existent and the focal points were confused.
Of course the friends I was travelling with wanted to see the photos. (Oh, did I mention one of them was a photographer?) I had no interest in showing them the photos because of my embarrassment but they encouraged me to bring them the next time we were together. So I did what anyone would have done. I went home and sorted through the least awful of the bunch to show.
As I looked at each photo I studied it to see what I could learn about how to do it better next time. For the most part I was clueless except for one photo. The one thing I could decipher was about composition. The photo of my friends in front of The Louvre. It could have been improved if I shot them close up with the Pyramid in the background. I was attempting to get a photo of them, the entire pyramid and some of the architecture of the rest of The Louvre as well. I had positioned them far away standing against the Pyramid. They were just little specs in the photo and blended in with all the other tourists.
Armed with that information about my creative mistake I once again gave myself permission to take more photos, even more"AWFUL" photos, to learn what made an interesting or a striking photo, or something that captures a scene or a moment.
Fast forward to today. I have snapped tons of photos since then. Some I really like and some are still bad. When I see the bad ones I wince a little and then chuckle to myself and think, oh, another Louvre picture, more creative fuel.
