"Hindsight is a wonderful thing"

Saw a post earlier that reminded me of this one of mine, from many years ago. It was taken for a photography course that I was doing, one that essentially put me off progressing further in studying or experimenting with photography and nearly off of taking photos altogether.

The type of feedback I got concentrated solely on the technical aspects of the pictures rather than the success or otherwise of the image on its own terms. For example, the response for this one it ran along the lines that I had incorrectly exposed the picture and gave advice about how to fix it in the edit, when I thought that it was obvious that the look was a deliberate choice on my part (it even had "noir" in the description).

Now, I look back now and want to give myself stern words about having to "show your work" and "demonstrating understanding of the process" and maybe "do more of what you love", but at the time it was very dispiriting. I thought I'd signed up to do art, and I was getting instructions on how to hold the paintbrush and evenly cover the canvas.

Anyway, this is a long-winded way of saying that I didn't really start enjoying photography again for the decade and a half between then and signing up here late last year, and, eventually, posting whatever dumb images I think were a good idea at the time. It's been fun, thanks to you all 😁

#Photography