When you think you’re doing a good job, but end up taking photos that suck

Here are few brand new images from a roll I just finished. Sad to say that it definitely isn’t my best work. I think I pushed myself too hard and even got a bit cocky. I’ve shot a lot during the past week and thought I was in a zone. I thought I found good subjects, and in a way I was able to spot interesting situations and react to them quickly enough, but when I saw the actual photos, I was really disappointed and realised that they rather sucked. Has this ever happened to you? You think you’re doing a good job but seeing the results reveals a brutal truth?

During the past week I’ve been shooting a lot and thinking about photography. In fact, I’ve been shooting too much and pretty much exhausted my creative resources. I wanted to go shooting none the less. I think I got a bit obsessive and just shot, shot and shot. That really shows in the images. Out of 36 frames, I think only these 3 were pretty ok. The rest 30 I’m too embarrassed to even post. I think I was just too excited about being able to go into situations like a boss and thought the feeling would correlate with the greatness of the images. The thrill of the act got me romanticizing and expecting too much. I felt like Cartier-Bresson, but then quite distinctly realised that I wasn’t.

Going for a photo hunt like this really goes against my philosophy. I usually get my best images when I shoot rather passively. You know, when you just run errands, or whatever, and just remember to take the camera with you. Photographing the things that I just happen to stumble upon, gives me better and more natural results. When I go on for a hunt, the images seem cheesy and forced.

Images are shot on Kodak T-max 400 @ 400 and developed in D-76.