I Was a TERRIBLE Photographer...Here's What I Learned From My Early Days.

Get ready for some sweet HDR photos with large watermarks

For this week's post, I want to take you back. Most photographers show you their best work, but I’m doing the opposite. I want to go back to my early days in photography, not just to see how far I’ve come, but to offer a relatable journey for anyone picking up a camera for the first time.

I’m exposing myself with this post, I’m going to be digging into the archives to share images so over-processed with HDR that they might just burn your eyes. This is making be very uncomfortable writing this post and I’m kind of making myself very vulnerable here… But hey, growth comes from facing the past, right?

The very Beginning

We start this journey in 2009, the Nikon D3000 was the first camera I took seriously. Before that, I had a few small point-and-shoots, the kind that would probably sell for more than the Nikon these days with the whole digicam craze happening. But I loved my Nikon. I got it as a birthday gift, with the promise that I wouldn’t get another present for two years. Growing up poor, a $600 camera felt like an absurd amount of money for something that just did what? take photos?

But at the time, I was convinced I could turn photography into a career, and I was going to give it my all.

This is the first serious photo I ever took with a camera. Laughing is allowed of course!

Look at that sick watermark, placed in the absolute worst spot possible. Oh no, what have I done by starting this post? This is going to be painful to get through, but we must keep going.

For a moment, I really thought I was going to be a landscape photographer. In my head, I’d be in galleries around the world, selling this print to collectors. Clearly, I had a lot to learn. But for my first shot with a DSLR, shooting fully manual, I have to give myself a little credit. At least I had the right idea… I think.

Now, let’s get a few more amazing landscape shots out of the way so we can move on quickly.

Oh, and yes, I really loved my watermark in those early years.

I don’t think all of these are total throwaways, but I definitely didn’t know how to edit because, holy HDR, weird colors and holy moly look at those skies! It’s wild to look back at these now and wonder what I was thinking at the time. Painful? Absolutely. But also kind of hilarious.

I was learning, and I’ll tell you what—I was shooting a lot. My camera was with me everywhere. I had this freedom with photography that I wish I still had today. I was trying every kind of photography I could think of.

I didn’t care what I was shooting I just needed to be taking photos. If someone asked me what I did, I’d say, “I’m a photographer,” and fully believe it. There was no hesitation, no second-guessing, no worrying about whether I was good enough to call myself one. I just did it.

Falling Into Weird Times

As time went on, I got better technically, at least. But something changed. I stopped calling myself a photographer. Was it the pressure to monetize? The fear of not being good enough? I’m still figuring that out.

Writing this now, it honestly makes me a little sad. At one point, I had no fear. I had this freedom, this carefree mindset to just shoot. I may have improved my skills over the years, but did I lose something more important in the process? I think I was putting a lot of pressure on myself to turn photography into a business started to take it’s toll. I found a few clients during my early days with event photography so I was on the right path but I was also still very young. I started to hate taking photos if i’m being honest

But I didn’t know it at the time, what I really needed was something to bring back that feeling of excitement again. And then, by pure luck, I stumbled into sports photography.

Finding My Passion in Sports Photography

At the time, I was living in South Florida, where I grew up. I heard about the local soccer team, The Fort Lauderdale Strikers, through a podcast or something. The podcast had a live chat, and on a whim, I asked how I could get a press pass to shoot a game.

That one message changed everything. They answered and said sure come shoot a few games for us. I was working for free of course but I fell in love.

I showed up to my first match with my camera, completely unsure of what I was doing but the second I started shooting, I was hooked. The energy, the movement, the challenge of capturing a moment in fast-paced chaos. I had never felt anything like it.

More than that, I met incredible people who helped shape my journey, and I fell even deeper in love with the game itself. Soccer has always been a part of who I was, but now, through photography, I found a way to document what I loved instead of just watching from the sidelines.

I was so broke at the time that I remember saving up and selling anything I could just to buy a used Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 with a broken focus motor along with a monopod. But that didn’t matter. I was all in. This was what I wanted to do.

For a while, sports photography felt like the only thing that mattered until I stopped shooting altogether for few years. But that’s a story for another post.

Where I’m at these days with photography

After that few year hiatus that ended around 2016, I finally started to feel that spark again, I moved to california and started working fulltime in the live production world. I don’t think I ever stopped being a photographer, but I definitely stopped calling myself one for a while.

I’m not shooting every day like I used to, and I’m not chasing the idea of making photography my full-time career. I shoot when I have the time, and when I do, it feels good. That’s really it. No pressure, no expectations, just getting back to enjoying the process again.

And maybe that’s enough.

I think that’s going to be it for this post for now… I have an idea to share a part two, diving into those in-between years and how I found my way back to the camera. Whether I actually write it? Well, you’ll just have to wait and see.

Thank you all for joining me on this trip down memory lane. You rock!

Things That Inspired Me

This week it has to be Alan Schaller and his latest video from Tokyo where he shoots with an Iphone 4! It’s a very fun video with some great energy. I love anything Alan touches so i’ll share it with you also!

See you Later Alligator

See you all next week. This post was very personal and still makes me uncomfortable, but I really do think it’s important to look back so you can see how far you’ve come as a human. I appreciate all of you for joining me every week, like i’ve said before it means the world to me.

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