mistakes

Sometimes I feel overwhelmed by the amount of photographic beauty out there in Internet Land. I have to daily remind myself to choose to set my face to my own path and purpose and not let what others are doing drive me to a game of comparison.  I was already thinking about this battle when a photographer friend mentioned her own similar battle and so I realized it was not just me who struggled with this. How silly to believe that we are alone in our struggles. We forget that others are imperfect like us. (As photographers this battle is compounded by that fact that we only display what we think is our best work, forgetting that others also have a pile of rejects on the editing room floor that no one will see.)

As I was going through old photos, uploading them to my online storage site, I came across these out-takes that I never shared. They were "mistakes" in my opinion. Lacking in focus or whatever my insecurities were telling me. I might have gone and edited them a bit to try and dress them up, but honestly I did not have the energy for it.

On this second pass I stopped and decided to share them with you. They are SOOC (straight out of my camera). Never touched. This is a quick look at me, struggling to get my manual settings situated, my composition right. Some of them are misfires, some are the pictures snapped before I caught the one I wanted to keep.

This one?  Not sure what I was doing?

I was trying to capture my "niece" in that golden sun. She was laughing at her uncle teasing her. Missed her face completely...BUT I caught her smile. 

A total misfire. Sometimes in that crazy sun flare the autofocus can't find a place to rest. I remember being frustrated with this and struggling to find my settings.

I think I put a similar photo in a collage somewhere. Now I love it.

Bean's "meatball"...

I know they are not total failures. In fact, now I love them and am embarrassed that the only "mistake" I made was to have thought they were as awful as I first thought. I am keeping them because I am sad that I was so critical of myself. 

I guess what I am trying to say to myself is very cliche: no one is perfect Tracey. 

And whatever/whomever I am comparing myself to is just soooooo not worth it.