I ORIGINALLY POSTED THIS AS A GUEST POST ON TWO PHOTOGRAPHY’S BLOG AND I’M HAPPY TO HAVE IT ON MY BLOG AS WELL 🙂
One of the hardest things about being a photographer is seeing your bad images. You can’t show them to anyone because they are technically “bad.”
And the last thing you want a potential client/colleague to see is a bad image.
I personally kick myself whenever I come across an image that is considered “bad” but is so so so good. The emotion pulls through the subpar aspects of the image and I lament over the fact that I can’t use it.
But who says I can’t use it? Other professionals? My clients? Me? I mean if I have too many bad images, then clearly I am not a good photographer. But what about those images that are good and bad?
I decided recently that I wanted to start using these images, because even though they are “bad” (and bad can mean anything; lighting issues, focusing, cropping, facial expressions) they are good. And I want to show them off!
So here are some of my “bad” images that I have taken in the last two weeks.
Normally I would have tossed these but as I was scrolling through the whole batch, these stood out to me. Yet I just COULDN’T throw them away.
And yes, these images are not something I would give my client without them understanding why I liked them but I am proud of them. They caught a moment, a glimmer of light, an emotion or a thought that I didn’t consciously have a part of. And that’s what I love about my job, I get to capture this.
Part of something I’m learning is that I cannot control what happens in my life, yes I can have a huge say in it but sometimes I can’t. And these images are like that for me; they are my connection to the parts of life that we don’t get to control. I am beginning to love taking the good with the bad and making something special out of those “bad” moments.
Next time, you’re working and you see a bad image but it speaks to you just keep it! Use it a personal idea, something to encourage you to capture that emotion and still be a pleasing photograph.
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