Revisiting the Past

Prisoner. Mendoza, Argentina, 2005

Just for fun, take a look at some of the images you have in your files from years ago, or from when you first started. How many would make the cut as “keepers” today? If you are like me, not many. And, if you are growing as a photographer, it’s a safe bet that even some of the photographs you have made lately–and ones you think might be “pretty good”–won’t make the cut a few years hence. That’s a good thing. Progress, dontcha know.

The above image from some eight years ago came from one of my first digital cameras, an Olympus point-and-shoot, that probably served up a whopping 3 megapixels. (I thought the camera was the lion’s roar at the time.) It is one of the few images in my “BEST-Pre-2009” file that was even worth bringing out again. At this point, though, I am able to post-process the image WAY better than I did years ago. In fact, back in the early digital Stone Age, I didn’t post-process my images at all because I had no software and I didn’t know what “post-processing” was anyway. The original of the above that I slid into that “BEST” file was simply the JPEG straight from the camera.

Even though the original file was pretty small–and a mere JPEG–I was able to run it through Silver Efex Pro this evening and convert it into an acceptable monochrome. Of course, I’ll never print this one–the file is just too small for anything much bigger than a 4×6. For the web, though, it works  just fine. That is sort of an interesting lesson, too–do we really need 36MP, 24MP, or even 12 MP cameras if all we do is post to the web? Food for thought there.

Anyway, jump into your way-back machine some time and tour some of your old files. It’s interesting to see what you find when you blow away the digital dust. Hopefully, it’ll also make you feel good about your progress as a photographer, too.