Break Through Moments in Your Photography

[HowardDvorin]

I had breakthrough many years go when I started to look at the effects of different lighting on my subject.At that ime, I decided to photograph the outside world. cityscapes,landscapes and seascapes. I always refer to the MAGIC of Light!

HowardDvorin

[Katie]

Great inspiring post so far!

I am thinking that I might be on the verge of something - maybe finding what I like to do - or how to do it best. Not quite sure, but I am making progress and that's all that matters to me. Moving forward!

[Ian Grant]

Despite having begun processing & printing in the early 1960's and working professionally in phototoraphy from the early 1970's it was a realisation in 1986 that I wasn't happy with my own personal work.

I'd made some great images in North Wales but realised something was missing - Tonality - and that 35mm was too grainy !

I went from printing with maximum contrast to the opposite printing with maximum tonality, while I'd been using LF for commercial work I'd never used it for my own images. I switched to shooting LF for my own projects in 1986 a move I've never regretted, I continued shooting 35mm but switched to an M series Leica but it became a diary camera.

Ian

[Dave in Kansas]

I'm not certain if this counts, but think I recently had the opposite of an "ah-ha" moment. More of a realization actually. Looking back at my last several rolls of film with many frames that are out of focus, or show camera movement, or non-flattering expressions on faces, and just bad timing, I think I should go back to shooting subjects that don't move. In fact, I was thinking about starting a thread with the title "Anyone else shoot pictures that suck?"

Dave

[Thomas Bertilsson]

Despite having begun processing & printing in the early 1960's and working professionally in phototoraphy from the early 1970's it was a realisation in 1986 that I wasn't happy with my own personal work.

I'd made some great images in North Wales but realised something was missing - Tonality - and that 35mm was too grainy !

I went from printing with maximum contrast to the opposite printing with maximum tonality, while I'd been using LF for commercial work I'd never used it for my own images. I switched to shooting LF for my own projects in 1986 a move I've never regretted, I continued shooting 35mm but switched to an M series Leica but it became a diary camera.

Ian

Isn't it funny how different we can be? I went the other way, because I felt like I didn't have enough grain. Ditched 4x5 and only use the Hasselblad occasionally, in favor of 35mm.

[keithwms]

I don't know if I would call them breakthroughs, but my little "aha" moments keep happening pretty much every time I pick up a camera. I wouldn't do it otherwise.

[Klainmeister]

My break-through moment was one day when I was out shooting in 110 degree heat, broad daylight, not a cloud in the sky and I started shooting anyhow. The sterility of the images were great.

The moment? Learning that I don't want to be Ansel Adams.

[Ian Grant]

Isn't it funny how different we can be? I went the other way, because I felt like I didn't have enough grain. Ditched 4x5 and only use the Hasselblad occasionally, in favor of 35mm.

Maybe not so different because I do (or rather mainly did) still shoot 35mm but not for personal work because I've been shooting Rock concerts since the early 1970's and that didn't change when I switched to LF for personal work. Unfortunately that side had to move from being just film for financial and logistical reasons about 10 years ago.

The freality though is you choose your own parameters, there's not really a right or wrong, but it is about getting the best you can from yopur own choices.

Ian

[Thomas Bertilsson]

Maybe not so different because I do (or rather mainly did) still shoot 35mm but not for personal work because I've been shooting Rock concerts since the early 1970's and that didn't change when I switched to LF for personal work. Unfortunately that side had to move from being just film for financial and logistical reasons about 10 years ago.

The freality though is you choose your own parameters, there's not really a right or wrong, but it is about getting the best you can from yopur own choices.

Ian

Agree fully, Ian, about choice and preference.

Except, and this is personal, I like the print quality I get from 35mm better than any other format.
I'm quite simply happier with those prints than I am with prints from medium format or 4x5. Either way, to me that's merely a small part of the full picture, and I could go on being very happy shooting nothing but a Rolleiflex or Hasselblad. The camera is the least of my concerns.

- Thomas

[rudolf]

I have break-throughs quite often - I don't know is it good or not.
Once I realized that "wow factor" on photographs matters mainly on the Internet;
Another time, that human being is almost always most important in photographs I appreciate;
Once that I can frame only in square, some time after that, that my alter ego sees the world mostly in panoramas;
Not long time ago I also realized that I don't want to share my thoughts on photography anymore (after doing that for almost 5 years on popular site in my country).
And I'm pretty sure I'll find other break-throughs soon. Every time I do, it changes something, and frankly speaking, I don't mind.