Last light in La Jolla
A lovely sunset along the coast in La Jolla, CA...
I sure love photographing the Pacific!
When I was in San Diego recently, I wanted to get out and shoot at least one sunset along the coastline. So I connected with my friend Scott Davenport and we met up and headed out. Scott is a local photographer and workshop leader and knows this area really well. He choose this spot and it was a real winner!
La Jolla is a little town just north of San Diego and the coastline there is just incredible. There are all sorts of interesting rock formations and some tide pools as well. It was excellent!
This is a single 25 second exposure, which accounts for the smooth water. Edits were made in Luminar by Macphun, which you really need to try out if you haven't yet!
Old photos, new results
Do you ever go back and re-process photos that you have previously shared? I do that sometimes, and find that it's a great creative exercise. But recently, I HAD to go back and re-create an old photo for a client, and it took me forever to make it look like how it looked when I first processed it, about 5 years ago. And so I learned a lot in the process - and I am sharing those learnings and my observations in today's post. Have a look!
Some thoughts on going back to the well
(alternate title: There's gold in them there archives!)
I love to take new photos of new places - that’s part of what drives me as a photographer. I long for the new, I guess. And over the last few years, I have built up a decent-sized library of images through all my travels (about 130,000 pics now, and counting), most of which are still in need of post-processing and publishing. I’m getting to it, albeit more slowly than I would like.
But hey, this isn’t a full-time job for me, so I make time when I can. I will say that I am cranking them out pretty quickly this year, which was one of my goals in 2015 - so I have that going for me. :-) In fact, so far in 2015 I have published well over 200 photos (including iPhone shots), which you can find in my Flickr photostream - that’s where I keep everything. I like how Flickr let’s you organize things. (You can read some of my musings on Flickr here.)
With a large backlog of things I want to share (not just photos, but a couple of product reviews, and a laundry list of other topics to write about), you may find it odd that there are times when I dip back into my previously published photos, and do some re-editing.
I don’t really have time to do this, but sometimes I do it anyways. It's a great exercise.
But sometimes, it's a necessity. This recently came about because a customer contacted me about an image I shared several years ago. It was an HDR of a sunset in La Jolla, CA and - according to my current thinking - it was more of an over-the-top HDR. Ok, it was a very over-the-top HDR. It’s not even remotely close to what I would do with the photo today. But they liked it, and they wanted it, and I was happy to oblige.
You see, my style has changed quite a bit since the “early days” of 4-5 years ago, and (in my opinion at least) my application of HDR is much more subtle - most of the time. Now and then I hammer those pixels, but mostly not so much.
But here’s the thing - the photo was done in such a way that I HAD to re-process it in order to make it larger for them to print (I made a LOT of mistakes early on in this creative pursuit of mine). But the problem was this: I had no idea what I had done to get the photo looking the way it did. I knew generally what software I used, mostly because it was all I had at the time, but as far as the steps I used to create it, specifically? No idea. No. Idea. Whatsoever.
So what did I do?
I did the only thing I possibly could do - I started to re-process the photo that I first created about 5 years ago. It was a lot of trial and error, though mostly error. And guess what? It took me forever to get it looking even remotely close to what the client was expecting. (No surprise.) I finally got it there, but the whole exercise was a great learning process. A bit painful I might add, but still a great learning process.
Here are some things that I encountered, observed, and learned by going back to the well, and why I recommend it as a fabulous creative exercise:
Your stylizing choices really do change over time - and perhaps drastically.
Assuming your processing is somewhat consistent from image to image (I am often a creature of habit), don’t hesitate to chronicle this somewhere, as a point of reference at least, should you ever need it. I can hardly remember what I had for breakfast, so a journal of this stuff could come in really handy someday - like last week! :-o
Your workflow has probably changed quite a bit too, and likely for the better.
But just like the last point, if you chronicle this somewhere you can refer back to it. Can you remember which filters you applied, and in what order, when processing your pics in years past? Can you remember which software products you used? I know what I do today, but that’s different from last year, much less several years ago. You could even keyword this stuff into the image in the library, I guess. And I am not suggesting you do this for every image - because that’s a little too OCD - but maybe some just general notes about your “style”.
Use this exercise as a yardstick to measure your development.
Your skills have likely matured - a LOT. Most of the images in today’s post were processed years back, but just sat there on my hard drive because I didn’t like the results at the time. They were flat, boring - even ugly in some cases. Perhaps I just didn't have the right skills in post-processing to bring the image to life, and I certainly lacked the confidence to "put them out there".
Now that I have come back to look at them with fresh eyes - and better skills in post-processing - I have been able to create photos that I deem worthy of sharing. These are also all single exposures. Part of the reason I never did anything with them in the past was that I was just TOO addicted to HDR and these, being single frames, just got passed over in favor of “better” shots to share.
Software gets better over time...
That’s another thing about today’s photos. I don’t think I could have gotten the results you see here 5 years ago. Maybe I could have with a lot of work, but with all the advances in software, it sure makes things quicker and easier on us...and at least in this case, it saves these from being banished to obscurity forever. And I rather like these photos I am sharing today. I’m glad that I dug them out.
...but it also gets different.
I used Topaz Adjust on the original image 5 years ago, and thus used it on the re-edit, in an attempt to "get it right". That product has gone through a LOT of changes in the last 5 years (and I’ve used it all this time, though not on every image), so even remembering the way you did things back then might not lead you to the same end result these days.
This is an endless source of entertainment...
I realize some photographers consider what they published in the past “off limits” because it’s a snapshot (no pun intended) of where they were at the time - artistically speaking - but I am not that way at all. I have occasionally gone back to previously published photos and done a re-edit, just for the hell of it. It’s damn fun, especially going into it with the mindset that it’s damn fun! You can easily pass a few hours doing this.
...so know where to draw the line.
When you have a large library of photos, you have to decide what’s worth a re-edit, and what’s better left alone - otherwise, you could spend all your time just messing around with the old stuff and never get the newer work published. Nothing wrong with it of course, but I suspect a lot of photographers are like me, and want to create new work from recently captured images. There’s an addiction to the new, so to speak.
You may create some amazing work - and you didn't even know it was there.
Although I would do this whole photography thing for free (and in some ways, you could argue that I do!), I do want to earn some money from my efforts if possible, in order to fund new purchases and travel. So why not dip back into some old favorites and give them a new look? Or like I did with these photos - dig out ones that you never did fully process, and never shared, because you thought they weren’t “good enough”. You may find some real keepers buried deep in the archives.
It’s your art, and it’s your right to do so. Why not then share those pics wherever you host your shots for viewing? I add mine to my Flickr photostream as well as put them into my portfolio site on SmugMug. No one will ever discover them if they just sit in my library, collecting virtual dust. What good is that? You’re not doing anyone a favor, least of all yourself. So share that stuff!
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And now thanks to this little accident of mine, I have this whole post worth of images to share, because once I fixed that one old photo for my client, I started looking at all the others I took of that sunset...and it was a beautiful sunset. Real beautiful, in fact. So then I got busy processing, and processing and processing...and all of these photos above are the results.
And guess what? I added all these to my portfolio site, and they are going on Flickr too...because that’s where they may get discovered by people that might just be looking for a California sunset picture. So don't hesitate to dive back in to some old files - you really may find a diamond or two in the rough!
And if you read this far, then you may be asking "where is that HDR you are referring to, Jim?". Well, here it is - this is my re-creation which mimics the stylizing I did on it 5 years ago...not at all what I would do today, but 5 years ago, well...things were a little different for Jim here. :-) I was VERY in to pushing those pixels around.
And yes, curiosity killed the cat, so you can bet that after finishing this for my client, I went back to it and decided to reprocess as an HDR in the style that I prefer today...so below is that version of the pic. It's still a somewhat aggressive use of HDR - depending on your definition of aggressive, of course - but it's way closer to what I would do with the photo today, and more closely resembles my current tastes.
And lastly - yes, in case you are curious, that first photo at the top of today's post is a single exposure from the bracket set used to create this HDR. That's another reason I am doing less and less HDR - I find I often get a result I am pleased with when using just a single exposure. Not always, but often.
Thanks for stopping by - I’ve got to go process some old photos now - and some new ones too!
La Jolla Cove
Ahh, La Jolla. That place just totally rocks! Do people that live in SoCal just love it or what? The beach is gorgeous, the weather is fabulous - pure bliss! I caught this shot while wandering around on the beach there, waiting on the light to change. You know, as photographers we spend some time waiting...and waiting...and waiting. But, it's always worth it!
La Jolla portal
La Jolla, CA is just a fabulous place and I love the beach there. That's about all I can say about that. I was there on the beach, camera in hand, stepping on rocks, talking to seals (or are they sea lions??), and listening to waves crash around me. It was pure heaven. I took some pictures too.
Clouds over La Jolla
La Jolla is a little town situated on a beautiful stretch of Southern California coastline, just north of San Diego. I was in San Diego on business and after work one day was able to squeeze in a drive up there, hoping for some cool beach or sunset shots. Lucky me, I got both. In fact I came home with a whole lot of shots from that trip, but for some reason I have not processed that many of them. I should correct that! This was just after I arrived. The beach there is popular with tourists and sea lions, but luckily no tourists got in my way (I was happy to have the sea lions around). It was a cloudy afternoon, which gave way to a cloudy sunset, which made me happy.
I am wrapping up a quick trip to Montreal, Canada today and got out last night for some photo time in Old Montreal. It was great, and it's a beautiful area. I posted an iPhone shot on my Facebook page, which I often do while traveling. If you are interested in following me, you can "Like" my page here: http://www.facebook.com/NomadicPursuits
Thanks for stopping by!
Just another La Jolla sunset
Do you think folks that live along the coast in California ever get tired of looking at these fabulous sunsets? I wonder if they are so used to them that they forget about them. It seems like every time I have been out there and caught a sunset, it has been spectacular. I wonder if they are spectacular every day. As a photographer, it is hard to imagine living there and ever passing one of these things up!
King of the hill
These are some of my new friends. I met them at a beach in La Jolla, CA. Aren’t they awesome? All kidding aside, I watched these creatures frolic to and fro and never noticed the time passing. One even came in real close and was rubbing his head on a rock, barely 10 feet from me! It was awesome and I got a lot of shots that day! If you are ever in SoCal, I recommend a visit to La Jolla - you will not be disappointed!
Sunset at La Jolla Cove
While on my recent trip to San Diego, I was able to squeeze in a little camera time after work one day, and headed up to La Jolla for sunset. It did not disappoint. It is such a beautiful area, and luckily there were some nice clouds around. I sat out on the rocks for a long while, though it seemed like mere seconds to me since it was so enjoyable. It’s one of those places any photographer would love even without a camera in hand. Anyways, I came home with a lot of images, most of which I have not had time to inspect but which will undoubtedly populate my photostream in the future. Thanks for stopping by!
La Jolla mist
Ok, so technically this is not mist. I was in La Jolla, CA (which totally rocks by the way!) and found myself at La Jolla Cove around sunset. Obviously this was not an accident - I wanted to get some sunset shots in the area. Who doesn’t, really? It is such a beautiful area. Anyways, I did reel off tons of photos there, from seascapes to sea lions and back again. It was fairly dark and I was getting my gear together and about ready to leave, so I climbed back up to ground level and started for the car. I happened to look back and saw this rock formation, where I had been standing for nearly an hour, from a different perspective. In this case I went for a single long exposure, 14 seconds to be precise, and all the crashing waves just disappear into a fine mist...