I have been with DPC for 8 Months, 6 moths as a fully fledged member so I feel its a good time to sit back and review why I joined, what i expected, what I have achieved and what I plan to do next.
Why I joined
I have owned a digital camera for a couple of years and have predominantly taken snaps. I have had a SLR since I was 16, and whilst i know how to use it and have over a number of years taken some pretty food images, I realised that I was not taking photographs that reflected my own style and vision.
Last tear I stumbled across DPC via Google, and realised within a few minutes that this was something that would give me photographic sense of purpose and help stimulate my latent creative juices.
What I Expected
I hoped to be able to enter a few competitions with anonymity and if things went well and I was enjoying the challenges then full membership would be the next step.
My first entry was a rushed job and i scored 4.9 which was OK for what I submitted. however the feedback stimulated me into thinking more about what I could achieve and recognising a little more about what I gad in me.
After a few challenges I also recognised that my preferred images tended to be, strong slightly over saturated colours which leaned a little towards graphical images. This was also convenient as with a point and shoot this was a style which was easier to produce than heavy detailed fine imagery
What have I achieved
I feel that I am beginning to develop and good eye for composition, and I am pretty confident i have a very strong working knowledge of my camera and am able to view an image in my mind which 9 times out of 10, is what I see in the final picture.
I also believe that I have significantly improved my photoshop skills am now able to take a reasonable average shot and give it some significant direction and boost.
I have taken part in 44 challenges and have scored 5 6+̢۪s and 1 7+ culminating in a ribbon in the Dreams challenge. I have an overall average of just under 5.4. I feel I am starting to make good progress, but still hit surprises where my shots do considerably worse than I expected.
What Next
I promised myself a new camera once I had achieved a number of targets. I have met all these so will soon be buying DSLR, the decision is which one.
On the challenge front I will still enter as many as possible as I have a lot of learning to do, and when I buy the new camera, I will have a lot of learning to do.
The Outcome
Thank you DPC for opening my mind and my heart to a new way of using this Digital media, I have enjoyed this trip and can only hope that occasionally I have provide some enjoyment to others..... |
