Swans-a-swimming

Sometimes it takes a while for photographs to mature.
Sometimes it takes a while for photographers to mature.
Sometimes it takes a while for technology to mature.

And sometimes, when all three have matured together it's worth revisiting old work.

The photographs in this blog were all taken over 4 years ago using my first digital camera, the entry level Canon 350D. Much has changed since 2007 but even if I restrict the context of the change to photography, and in particular photography's intersection with me, there are still several factors of note that result in a new interpretation of old work.

1. Lightroom 3.4 is out now. This is leaps and bounds better than whatever it was that I was using back in 2007. I think it was probably LR 1.1 but it may have been Pixmantec's RawShooter (subsequently swallowed by Adobe and reborn as Lightroom) or even Canon's DPP. Even if nothing else had changed by reprocessing the RAW file with the LR 2010 engine I would get a better finished picture.
2. Not only is the software much better, but I'm far more competent at using it. I have been known to shudder when I look at the develop settings I used on some old photographs; crank up the fill light (noise? who he?), ALWAYS stay away from brightness slider, adjust colour temperature randomly while desperately trying to get a neutral balance (why try to neutralise the mood?) and various other crimes against post processing too numerous to mention. Nowadays I like to think I employ a much more subtle and effective set of adjustments to my RAW files, although no doubt in another four years time I will be cringing just as much at my current workflow.
3. My eye/creative vision/photo-mojo/call-it-what-you-will has moved on. It must have done, if only through producing thousands of photos since then, at least if you subscribe to the "10,000 hour rule" proposed by Malcolm Gladwell in Outliers. Right?

You might ask, if I'm going on so much about how things have improved, why don't I show the old photos with the new and allow everyone to compare, contrast, critique and congratulate(maybe)? The thing is, I'm really not interested in my four year old interpretations. The current versions are all that matters, at least until I revisit again and then the future versions will be what counts.

Go back and grab something from the past and bring it into the present. Make it better. Show it anew. But always keep looking forward, never look back.

Tweet