{c. s. lewis}
i've decided that during these busy days when i can't get around to venturing out and taking new photos or writing new posts, i'll search back through the archives and grab an old photo or two to post... maybe sprucing them up a bit, seeing as back when i first started this blog, some of my photos were quite bland. i had a much less fancy camera then, and i never bothered to learn manual shooting or creative processing in photoshop to enhance those bland shots.
but even with that being the case, i find that i took some photos that i still find interesting... even inviting. the above shot is one such photo. {originally posted here}
speaking of looking back... i've lately been devoting any free time i have to doing something that is a bit painstaking, but very worth it to me. i've been going back through my blog archives and updating my posts to fit my latest blog layout/format. {painstaking, because it is a lot of work. but very enjoyable, too, as i get to walk down memory lane and see some things i had completely forgotten about.}
i used to have a more narrow post/text column {dictated by the blog layout i chose}, thus my photos were more narrow as well. when i updated to this latest format, the text columns in all my old posts automatically became wider per the new layout. but the photo sizes remained the same. so i had tiny photos with big, wide text blocks... a not-very-visually-pleasing look, in my opinion.
perhaps this would not bother most people, but i guess it just got under the skin of the graphic designer in me. even though i am sure most will never see those old posts again, i do look at them from time to time. they are a part of me... a part of my story. and there will be a day when i will want my son to go back and look at them, too.
also, i happen to know from my blog stats that there are times when someone will click on one of my older posts after entering something in a search engine. for instance, when someone searches for info about se juan teneo {a coastal town in mexico that i hope to visit one day... which i was made aware of via a favorite movie... shawshank redemption}, the search results bring up two old blog posts of mine {this one and this one} that many end up clicking on. so if there is anyone out there that happens upon my blog via a search, i would want the look of all my older posts to reflect this latest look i have settled upon... especially since my blog is as much about the visual as it is about the written {or verbal, if you will}.
i don't know... even if no one ever sees those old posts again... even i never again returned to look at them again... it was driving me crazy to know they were that way {a bit the of o.c.d. in me??}, and i wanted to unify the look throughout. it is somewhat of a portfolio, after all. so i think there should be some amount of a common thread in the midst of my progression and growth as a blogger, photographer and writer.
of course, i can't unify the subjects or the quality from the first post to the most recent. my photography and my writing have grown over the past few years. so have i as a person. i would hope i am more mature now. {having a kid will do that very quickly for a person... mature them.} and to be honest, there are a few posts i would be okay with going back and deleting. {over the course of updating the layout of my archived posts, i'll see one and think, "oh, my! what was i thinking when i took that photo... and decided to post it?" or "why was i so transparent when i wrote that?"}. but i choose to leave those posts in, because the are just reflections of me {good or bad} from periods of my life that made me who i am today.
and though i can look back and honestly say i am so much different now from who i was when i started my blog on september 19, 2008, the changes of my life {other than having a son and losing the career i had known for almost twenty years} were so gradual and small, that it didn't seem like life was changing at all. that's why i love this c. s. lewis quote!
anyway, since i often love to make my photos round, i figured i'll do these look-back posts as if i was looking back through a looking glass... which is an effect this round crop sort of creates, no? i started with this water scene, because it reminds me of what i am talking about... big picture, the sea looks pretty much the same every time you look at it from the same vantage point. but if you look closely at each individual wave that comes and goes, you see that none is like the other, but more notably, you would see micro-change. and if you were to look from above, you'd probably even see a gradual, but significant change in the coastline over time.
this is one reason i treasure my blog. whether i choose to be personal and transparent here or change to a more guarded and veiled side, it is always a picture of where i am in life. it makes me wish i had started blogging sooner. whether fascinating or not-at-all-interesting, it's a bit like a lingering auto-biography or diary of my days. perhaps that is why i have been so enjoying going back through the archives {though i still have quite a bit of updating to do... i'm only half-way through 2009}...
because it is a look back at more than just pictures and words. it is a look back at life.
and i think that is one reason there are so many blogs of this nature, don't you?
perhaps this would not bother most people, but i guess it just got under the skin of the graphic designer in me. even though i am sure most will never see those old posts again, i do look at them from time to time. they are a part of me... a part of my story. and there will be a day when i will want my son to go back and look at them, too.
also, i happen to know from my blog stats that there are times when someone will click on one of my older posts after entering something in a search engine. for instance, when someone searches for info about se juan teneo {a coastal town in mexico that i hope to visit one day... which i was made aware of via a favorite movie... shawshank redemption}, the search results bring up two old blog posts of mine {this one and this one} that many end up clicking on. so if there is anyone out there that happens upon my blog via a search, i would want the look of all my older posts to reflect this latest look i have settled upon... especially since my blog is as much about the visual as it is about the written {or verbal, if you will}.
i don't know... even if no one ever sees those old posts again... even i never again returned to look at them again... it was driving me crazy to know they were that way {a bit the of o.c.d. in me??}, and i wanted to unify the look throughout. it is somewhat of a portfolio, after all. so i think there should be some amount of a common thread in the midst of my progression and growth as a blogger, photographer and writer.
of course, i can't unify the subjects or the quality from the first post to the most recent. my photography and my writing have grown over the past few years. so have i as a person. i would hope i am more mature now. {having a kid will do that very quickly for a person... mature them.} and to be honest, there are a few posts i would be okay with going back and deleting. {over the course of updating the layout of my archived posts, i'll see one and think, "oh, my! what was i thinking when i took that photo... and decided to post it?" or "why was i so transparent when i wrote that?"}. but i choose to leave those posts in, because the are just reflections of me {good or bad} from periods of my life that made me who i am today.
and though i can look back and honestly say i am so much different now from who i was when i started my blog on september 19, 2008, the changes of my life {other than having a son and losing the career i had known for almost twenty years} were so gradual and small, that it didn't seem like life was changing at all. that's why i love this c. s. lewis quote!
anyway, since i often love to make my photos round, i figured i'll do these look-back posts as if i was looking back through a looking glass... which is an effect this round crop sort of creates, no? i started with this water scene, because it reminds me of what i am talking about... big picture, the sea looks pretty much the same every time you look at it from the same vantage point. but if you look closely at each individual wave that comes and goes, you see that none is like the other, but more notably, you would see micro-change. and if you were to look from above, you'd probably even see a gradual, but significant change in the coastline over time.
this is one reason i treasure my blog. whether i choose to be personal and transparent here or change to a more guarded and veiled side, it is always a picture of where i am in life. it makes me wish i had started blogging sooner. whether fascinating or not-at-all-interesting, it's a bit like a lingering auto-biography or diary of my days. perhaps that is why i have been so enjoying going back through the archives {though i still have quite a bit of updating to do... i'm only half-way through 2009}...
because it is a look back at more than just pictures and words. it is a look back at life.
and i think that is one reason there are so many blogs of this nature, don't you?
7 comments:
good for you !!
i hate going back and fixing anything that isn't part of the present.....and god forbid, all those old photos my mom just gave me.....hundreds of them from years gone by.....will never find themselves in a photo album with names and dates.
a photo box, yes....but organized in any other way, shape or form with dates and names....not a chance !!
hmmmm... interesting way to put it, beth. i see your point... living in the present.
but i guess i look at it a different way...
i don't really see it as fixing as much as i see it as unifying... and strictly from a visual standpoint. i'm not re-writing anything i said... i'm not even fixing the old photos to look better {although, if i choose to re-use one for a new post in this "looking-back glass series", i may spruce it up}. but other than that, it remains the same... but just flows better from a layout standpoint. and for the most part, i'm just making the photos larger, which is a good thing, because many of them had detail that i would want to be seen better with a larger size. i guess if i had been writing some sort of book over the course of years, i would try to unify the look of all the chapters so that when all together in one book, it would flow. i think that's all i am doing, rather than fixing the past.
I'm the same as you. I only recently switched to a "big girl" camera. Yet, I am surprised when I go back and stroll thru my old photos how many of them I still really like. Altho, I have to admit, there are SOME where I wonder "WHAT was I thinking?" haha. I am going back and re-editing some of mine too, now that I know a bit more and have more resources available to me.
nice idea to go through the looking glass to check out som old photos&memories.
Oh, I love this quote - and what you did to the photo! I've gone back through all my old posts a couple times before too, and it is amazing seeing how different I am now - and how little I've changed, at the same time! I love coming across photos I took a year ago that I'm still in love with :)
I do cringe when I look back at some of my posts - but I would never want to change them because they are representative of my growth as a photographer, mother, and blogger. Maybe delete one or two - perhaps not!
yes, nicki... i completely agree. they represent who we were... and are. that is why i left my photos untouched in the old posts... except for enlarging them.
thank you, naomi and leanne. =) glad you like!
kathy, i agree. even just a resource to help enhance a photo can go a long way to better one where we lacked knowledge or skill or advanced equipment. but i still find bad photos, 'cause i realize it doesn't matter how good the camera, if you don't have a good eye... and in many of my earlier photos, i DID NOT! =)
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