Progress is Key
Looking at your work from day to day or even month to month can sometimes feel like you're just doing the same thing over and over again. Photography and other art forms can provide a definitive way to measure progress over time.
This is a photo I took over 5 years ago. Just when I was starting my full time professional photography journey. However, I only re-edited it a few days ago.
This is the original edit from 5 years ago:
To me there is such a huge difference in the look and feel of these two images. There are just a big differences like the sky. Technical differences like the contrast and colour palette. Then subtle differences like the colour of my pants. There is also the less tangible change in my ability to recognise the meaning behind those changes. All of it adds up to the sum of my progress over time.
Change is one of those things that becomes a fear once we have abandoned it for feeling content. We build comfort in our lives and wrap ourselves in safety. So we see change as a threat to those things. It doesn't have to be. Incorporate change in your life whenever possible and you will never fear it again. You might even welcome it when it is thrust upon you.
If you have any examples of progress in your work, I'd love to see it in the comments! As well as hear your experiences with change.
LINKS
-Intro Post
-kieranstone.com
-Twitter
-Instagram
I actually think they are both cool edits although the contrast in the bottom one is a bit ramped up. Would almost make a good bi-polar mood swing post. Old photos and editing hmm.... I would have to dredge back though film scans from the late 90's. Not sure we really want to do that on chain. I think my editing style was at it's worst in the early digital days with experimenting with HDR and over the top dynamic ranges. It seemed liberating at the time after film; but as I have aged I have regressed to more subtle editing which is perhaps more reminiscent of the film tones and textures I took in the early 2000's where I shot a lot of Kodakrome 64 (trying to get that 1970's nat geo look), and a lot of Fuji Velvia (trying to get a pre digital saturation slider saturated landscape look).
Intrepidphotos.com was part of the early internet so was archived by the internet archive project. So I can provide some snapshots of very early work by screenshoting the wayback machine outputs. This is part of the cover index page from 2001; the full galleries are not archived just the index. Jordan shot taken when I was 20, I took that Indonesia shot backpacking when I was 17, and Laos I was 18. Long time ago. I think I am more embarrassed now about that font than the photos.
Fast forward a decade to 2011; Much better font to photo ratio lol and the photos are a fair bit more refined IMO
They seem to have archived all the photos in this 2012 snapshot if you wanted to do some web time travel
https://web.archive.org/web/20121114033902/http://www.intrepidphotos.com/
For better of worse they are still archiving me
Best. Font. Ever!!
Looks like some great travel photography! Don't get me started on over the top HDR editing. I think I shared a post on bad editing one time. I'm not going to bring up those photos again!
That archiving of the internet is pretty cool!
One has to love late 90's fonts. Super epic indeed.
I feel the progress in my Hive journey, but not in my four hours per day packaging part time job. Every day looks and feels the same. And I am doing all of it for less than the half of the local minimum wage. I also receive a pension-like income for my multiple disabilities, but even my total income does not reach the local minimum wage. This is Hungary. And financial discrimination. But I started to get out of it with the help and the support from the Hive blockchain.
I am very grateful and very happy for every help and support I receive.
Happy New Year.
Have a nice day. All the best. Greetings and much love from Hungary.
Hopefully Hive helps out as much as it can! It is a wonderful opportunity for many to make some more income.
Cool to see your progress. The new image has much more tasteful processing!
I think so too. The first edit served it's purpose and was good at the time. But if I was putting stuff like that out now I'd be disappointed
Also I'll use your comment to leave the unedited shot. :)
The original looks great but I can totally understand what you did with the 2nd one. Its something I find myself doing more and more with older images as I learned more ways to express my creativity. Great work!
I've found images from years ago that I didn't know what to do with at the time. But with new techniques I've been able to correct issues or take elements for composites. It's been fun
The both look awesome the old one defiantly has a nice dark and moody feel to but I love the colors in the new one. The warm tones go so well with the blues!
Dark and moody vs bright and calming. Maybe it speaks to how my overall mindset has changed 😅
I really love both of these images. I think they are excellent but amazing to see how much you can change an image with your editing style.
I enjoy the editing process maybe a little more than the taking of the photos. I like the concentration and probably the control too :)
Kieran I absolutely love both of these photos. It is amazing to watch our progress over the years, or even just how our vision and interpretation of a scene can change over the years. I am more drawn to the darker, more moody image myself, but I also do tend to like dark and moody! I love that the newer edit has a lighter feel, more ethereal and dreamlike. They are both lovely and both have their place in your journey, which is amazing to reflect on!
I'm not surprised you're drawn to the more moody image 😅. Like a storm is approaching the coast...
I wonder how a big storm or tornado would look with a lighter and ethereal edit?