Who's In?

[Moderator edit - Great topic so I am putting a sticky on it ]

OK, so I've been wanting to do this for awhile, and finally just decided to do it. I have been looking back through the thousands of photos I have taken over the years since I started doing nature photography back in 2002. Like many of you, I have an appreciation for these images as they represent the creative journey. I can honestly say that I have improved SO much that its almost laughable.

So, my request from you, my fellow RMNP cohort, is to dig deep into your files or slides and find something from the real early days of your photography campaign. I think this is a good exercise for us to see those changes in our vision and techniques that you may have used since those days.

For me, this photo was one of the first ever large format images I took, using Velveeta 50 with my newly acquired, beat-up Tachihara 4x5 'Techincal Camera', and a Fujinon 90mm lens. I had taken a class at the Denver Darkroom over the summer on how to use a LF camera - and it appears to have been technically successful, but you can count a number of issues with the scene: composition, color cast, full sun, the list goes on...

So, with that, let's see 'em, and tell us a brief story about it, and how you perceive yourself as a photographer today.

Ok, you asked for it! Exactly 6 years ago this month I decided I wanted to become the world's greatest landscape photographer. I enrolled in a one day workshop with Mr. Colorado, John Fielder. Everyone in the workshop had these huge Nikon and Canon cameras, backpacks, photo vests and here I was with my little Canon Powershot Pro 1 ready to take on the world. This was one of the first shots I ever took using his instruction on leadin lines...was I good or what??? I can't wait to se what else pops up!

I have made a lot of improvement in the past 6 years and know that I continue to grow with each new year and each new shot. I also know that I could never have made it this far without the critiques and help I've received from this forum and a few of my close photographer friends. Thanks to Larry, Tony, Jason, Paul!!

Fun! Here are two of mine. Both shot probably around 1998 when I was taking photography in college. I lived about 3 blocks away from where these were shot. A large portion of both of them had to be cropped because I had a nasty light leak in my camera that I didn't discover until after I developed the film. Shot on Kodak Tri-X 400 in mid-day and hand held. They might have flaws but they represent who I am today in more ways then I can ever explain.

#2

I'm in! This comes from way back in 2005, when I still shot Reala (not talented enough for Velvia). This trip was when I first started to "get it", I think. I came away with many more keepers and I really felt like for the first time I was getting better. I think I've posted this shot before, but it has always been one of my favorites and for me it was when my passion for photography really took off.

Okay, I'll bite! This shot was taken back in 1994 when I was 20 years old at Glacier National Park. At the time, I considered it to be my best color landscape shot (though I had some b&w landscapes and wildlife shots I liked as much). I used some crappy Kodak negative film. The image on the left is a straight scan from the original print that I made before I even owned Photoshop. The one on the right is one I just now worked on in Photoshop. I do like the composition on this and the clouds. And I like how I got down low to make the rocks under the water more prominent. The light, though, isn't ideal and the reflection is less than ideal. I never really waited for or planned for the best light and conditions and just took whatever was there whenever I got there.

OK, I'll play as well! This (crappy scan) was one was one of my favorite images at the time - and still is among my favorites. I shot this in the mid 90s on the Fuji Velvia 50 with either a Canon 1n or a Canon Elan II - the two 35mm cameras I owned. (And I still have the 1n!) The climber is on the North Face of Looking Glass Rock in the beautiful Pisgah National Forest in North Carolina. One of my absolute favorite places to visit.

This image also represents a bit of a turning point as I soon started a new job in corporate America, and instead of photographing climbers, I turned to primarily landscape photography on weekends. Now I’ve come full circle and once again shoot sports and adventure, which is how I got into photography in the first place.

Interesting topic, Chris! Here's one of my early faves, from back in 2002 on my first trip to Patagonia. I had spent the winter with friends snowboarding in Argentina, and while I was there I came across some pictures of the peaks of Fitz Roy and Torres del Paine and knew that I had to make a side trip down there at the end of the season. Armed with my 2mp Nikon Coolpix 950, I took a 45 hour bus ride (no, not a typo) down to El Calafate and spent two weeks hiking around down there. Little did I know that 5 years later I'd be back there for a month with a 4x5 camera! (I didn't even know what a 4x5 camera was back then).

This exposure is absolute crap, barely worthy even of the web, but at the time I thought it was so cool to have that guanaco mozy into my scene! Here's a similar shot 5 years later; by then I had begun to put a lot more effort into researching and finding better perspectives.

Here's another Nikon Coolpix 950 shot from that trip. Back then I don't think I fully realized the importance of "good" light, so many of my photos were taken during midday hikes like this. ( Here's my slightly more "professional" Cerro Torre shot 5 years later! )

I posted this in this similar thread recently but I'll post it again here. Hope this is deep/old enough!

I took this in 1979 (Yeah, I'm gettin' old!) while driving my siblings to Pizza Hut for dinner. My family went to Gulf Shores, Alabama on most years for Spring Break and while on the way out for pizza I saw this incredible sunset so I jumped out of the car and shot it hand held with a completely manual Ricoh (XR10??) camera, Vivitar zoom lens (something like 35-350mm!) and Kodachrome (I think) film while my brothers and sister complained that they were hungry! They just had to wait!

This is among my first and oldest surviving nature photos. I took it when I was 13 years old with a 35mm camera (I don't remember the brand) made completely of plastic which probably had more light leaks in it than the average Holga. I remember it had a cheap 50mm "new optical lens." I was using some run-of-the-mill Kodak Gold print film and even though it was 100 speed it still looks grainy. (Film grain, remember that?)

I was on a camping trip with my grandparents in Washington state and this photo was taken in Mount Rainier National Park at a roadside overlook around the Paradise area. I took some shots with a 110 film camera even a few years earlier on a trip to Yellowstone but I'm not sure where those photos are. Wish I could find them. I still have that camera though. My photography has changed a lot since those days!

AWESOME stuff everybody - very inspiring!!!

COME ON GUYS AND GALS!!! Richie made this a sticky!!! don't let this thread die!!!

Ok I dug and I dug Deep, It was well before I made the jump to Nature Photography and Back to my film day in Journalism while in the Navy more than 20 years ago to 1982 when I was early in my Naval Career.

Woah! Talk about the way back web. I completely forgot about this image until I saw this thread. At that moment I had to dig through my archive and find it. It was my first image that I can remember being really proud of, it was among the first "Nature" photography shots I had ever taken back in March 2003. It was shot with a 4mp panasonic digital. When I opened it today it made me laugh. I can't believe how far my photography has come. This image, however, is definitely what got me started.

Here is an image from my early climbing days: Mt Foraker from about 14,000 feet on Mt Mckinley , May 1979
Shot with a Nikormatt, scan of Kodachrome 64.

Steve, Isn't Mt. Foraker the one where Sue Nott went missing a few years ago?

I started this great hobby in the late sixties, but didn't start dabbling in landscapes until the mid-eighties.
From 1986, somewhere west of Poudre Canyon.
Shot with a Minolta XD-11 or SRT100 and either a 35-70 or 90-230 zoom. Ektachrome100.
Don't need no stinkin' tripod or filters, just shoot handheld wide open .

Jack
Yes Sue Nott was on a very difficult route on the south side of Mt. Foraker.

Been scouring the archives since this thread appeared. Looking at old faded slides from the 70's taught me several things. First, if I'd known how crummy my equipment was and how lousy I was as a photographer I might have kept up with the career at McDonalds. Second, anyone remember the numbered Kodak films? 5247 and the like? Man, do those things look bad 40 years later!

Anyway, I found some old 35mm negs from those days but can't get the scanner fired up So here's an old scan. This is from my first serious shooting trip to the Badlands in South Dakota circa 1984. Sunrise from the top of Sheep Mountain Table. Followed by an image from about the same spot but at sunset from 2010.

Here's the 2010 image.

From '99 to '02 I was all about climbing 14'ers and photography was second to climbing and backpacking through the 90's until then. I always wanted to concentrate on photography but my youthful vigor was full of impatience and I just wanted to go-go-go. Finally I started to chill a little and I was always disgusted with my 'snaps' of my adventures because I knew I could do better if I tried. In 2002 the photographic quest began and I started shooing slide film and I quickly learned that getting good at photography was harder than I thought, but that was cool with me. I found I liked the creative journey as well as the asthetic one, on the trail (or off :) ). Here's one early slide from '02 while at the Great Sand Dunes.

This is a handheld pano taken from one of my family's farm fields south of Vienna, Austria. Nikon CoolPix 990 - 3 MP.

This image comes from a trip that was pivotal in my pursuit of photography - a near overnight switch from MF film to digital. Way back in 2000 I attended a geology conference in Scotland, followed by a vacation in Austria. The trip gave me an excuse to splurge on a Coolpix 990 which arrived the day before departure. The intention was to have it available for quick grab shots when I didn't have time to setup the tripod and Mamiya 645. I packed a heavy aluminum tripod, two Mamiya bodies, 4 lenses, LOTS of roll film and the CoolPix. During the entire 3 week trip I shot two 15 exposure rolls of film and 2,800 digital images. I was so impressed with 8"x10" digital prints that I only shot another 6 rolls of MF thereafter. The immediate feedback, ease and freedom of unlimited shooting put me permanently on the digital path. Not something that I had anticipated prior to that trip.

It's been an amazing decade in my personal development and enjoyment of photography. I'm looking forward to what the next decade brings.

This shot was taken on my first (and only) trip to Yosemite NP circa 1994-ish. I was in a high school photography class and wanted to try out my newly acquired skills. I wandered out to a nice spot in the grass to make sure I had a fore-, mid-, and background along with a focal point. Note the bullseyeing of Half Dome, blending of the cool tree into the other greenery, and the harsh midday light, among the many other issues, including a crappy scanner.

Taken on Kodak film (the stuff you buy at the supermarket).

My parents gave me my first camera when I was 10 years old, a Kodak Instamatic. From the start, I kept my own photo albums. Looking back through my first album (which is absolutely falling apart - gotta fix that!), I found this photo from a fall camping trip to Molly Gulch in 1979.

Here's one of my earliest landscape efforts from mid September 2003. This was shot with my first digital camera, a Canon Powershot S-50. Although that camera could shoot RAW, I really didn't know anything about post processing, so I was keeping it simple and this is a jpeg straight from the camera. The foreground is a little underexposed. At the time I thought it was pretty cool that I got that cloud right over North Maroon Peak, but photographically speaking, it would have been better if it was less centered. Still, after years of taking crappy pictures with disposable cameras while hiking and climbing, I was encouraged to finally be getting some better results.