[photogames] Throwback Thursday - I've only just begun...

So the photostars of this week's @photogames want us to go back in time when we just started as a photographer and compare it with more recent photos after a few years of experience. This way they want to judge our improvement...

If only I was a photographer! 😎

I did struggle a little with this game. I have never taken photography very seriously. It was only a few weeks ago that I bought my first "serious" camera after a gazillion years of only using point-and-shoot cameras or my smartphone. My photos never outgrew the level of "snapshot". So...

"How much can your snapshots improve?" 🤔

The second challenge is that many of my old photos are gone... I bought my first point and shoot camera in 2004 and had many computer crashes since. Some might still be somewhere on one of my extremely rusty hard drives. Or on a backup cd (yeah, that is what we did, back in the days...). And I am kinda not at home... So I had to pluck some of my photos from my old blogs and that means terrible resolution. Sorry for that!

Anyhow... This is what it is... Let's go!!

Lines & bridges

Valencia 2013... Not super long ago but it was around the time that I started having these "artistic" moments when on holidays. I was travelling more often and as a result, made more photos. And I started seeing lines everywhere. The perspective underneath bridges was kinda cool... But what to do with it?

Back then... The only editing I did was resizing the photo so I could post it online. Now (Malaga, 2018), I am a bit more conscious of the right crop and improving my colours.

Tiny planets

2015... My first tiny planet! I installed planetical on my phone and started playing around with some "panoramic" photos that I had. I thought the below photo (again, Valencia 2013) was super artsy and it ended up on my Instagram. Who cares about stitching, right?

I liked these tiny planets so much that In 2017 I bought a serious 360 camera for my trips. With that, I was able to add myself to the planets if I wanted to. And sometimes that turned into pretty fun photos. On the right, one of my favourite #tinyplanets of this moment, taken in 2017 in San Francisco.

Bench & Outdoors

It was 2005 and I went on my first trip all by myself (and I was super nervous!). Back then, I was interning at a newspaper and I had to do an interview in Germany. They didn't want to send a photographer with me so I took my own crappy camera with me. I was going to fix this! (yikes.... but one of my photos got published!!)

I don't know what I was thinking. I loved the placing of the bench and the trees were so spooky! But point-and-shoot decided I needed a flash with that. And who was I to disagree?

Now, I still love benches. It is a weird thing but I noticed it a few weeks ago that I keep taking photos of benches. Or... I love taking photos of nice views with a bench in it...

Travel photography & Symmetry

Maths ruined me! I see geometrical shapes everywhere! Add a little symmetry to it and you can bet that I am taking a photo of it. The "then" photo was taken in Paris (really?!?) in 2006. The "now" is also in Paris, in 2016.

This is where my love for night-photography started. I haven't done much in this area yet, but my heart is telling me that I will. Also, as a night-owl, it makes more sense to me anyway 😉.

Blossom

Every spring, I get excited about the cherry blossom trees starting to bloom. And almost every year I take a few photos of them. I found photos dating back to 2006. The below "then" photo is from 2016, though. But since the resolution of the 2006 photo is so crap, I'll go with this one. The idea is pretty much the same anyway! I just loved those flowers, but never knew how to make an interesting photo of it. To me, it was more of a snapshot that I saw them, instead of doing something more.

The "now" was taken a few days ago. Walking around the cherry blossom park with my new camera (and new lens), trying to figure out how bokeh works...

Sunsets

Last but not least... sunsets!! The "then" was in 2009 in Iceland. I just thought it was beautiful and wanted a photo to prove that I saw something like that on social media. I pointed and shot. I didn't make any conscious choice to keep or leave the rocks in the photo. It was cold and I wanted to get back to my hotel.

The "now" is my favourite sunset shot and I am hoping I will get the chance of trying that again with a proper camera! It was taken in 2017 in Panama.