In these environmental-friendly days, it feels almost like I have a confession to make: I produce a lot of "garbage". Every time I do a photo shooting, I end up with a lot of waste(d space) on my hard drive. In the age of digital photography, you can easily lose track of the sheer amount of data you produce. During the process of finding my own style as a photographer and learning the techniques, it is almost inevitable that a big percentage for your photos will never see the light(-room) (*bad-photographer-joke*).
However, keeping all your old workaround (digital hoarder) can pay off in the end. I liked the photos I did with Caroline back in December 2017. It is almost two years ago and I would not even consider this as the beginning of my photographer's journey. In that pre-phase, I was lucky enough to get the amazing Caroline in front of my camera and was allowed to practice.
It was my very very first outdoor portrait shoot. At Reffen. Bright sunlight. Windy. 3.30 PM. No assistance and a reflector. Not sure what I was thinking at that time.
The sunny weather was already annoying as hell, but nothing in comparison to the trouble with the wind. Have you ever tried to hold a reflector with one hand while trying to take a decent picture with the other hand while you and your model are battling strong winds? If yes, then you can imagine what Caroline and I were going through: Hair, clothes and reflector were just out of our control. I got so annoyed at some point, that I just threw that reflector in a corner. I have not used it ever since. I produced a lot of garbage that day.
The other day, I was listening to a podcast from masterclass.com by photographer Annie Leibovitz. One chapter of her masterclass is about the importance of self-reflection and why it's so important for every photographer to look back at their work. That is what I did.
I dug out those old raw photos and having two more years of experience with Lightroom, I gave them a makeover.
I managed to "save" some of the photos which I didn't consider good enough to spend editing time on them. I am quite happy looking back and finding all these treasures.
See them here: https://www.hedgehogmedia.de/copper