If I took TERRIBLE photos like this when I started, you have nothing to FEAR: Fro Film Project

The title is true, I absolutely took terrible photos when I started. Sure I got the framing down every once in a while but I did not understand exposure at all. The key point I want you guys to understand is the “when I started”. I started shooting when I was 13 and I am now about to turn 34 and did not feel confident in my skills until my mid twenties.

What is my point in showing you pictures like this from my film days? To show you that I started somewhere as well. But I also want you to know that if you have been shooting for two, three, four even five years you are still just starting out. Today I see it to often where people complain that they are not getting the shots they want six months or a year into shooting.

I can tell you from my 20 years of shooting that the only way to get better is to continue not only educate yourself but continue to shoot and grow as a photographer. Who cares if you go out there and get one keeper out of 50 if your learning and growing. But in no way should you expect to the best photographer in the world in short order.

These old images are sobering to see and share. I have no issues whatsoever sharing them and having people see where I started, I have nothing to hide. I look back on these images and I see flairs of the future photographer I would become. I see mistakes that I try and help photographers not make when they are starting out. But I also see a kid who didn’t know any better and kept shooting and shooting and shooting.

Maybe it was a good thing the internet was not as powerful at that time. The only place I could share my work was at the camera store or with my local family and friends. They could tell me yay or nay but no one could tell me how to become better at that time. I got a few pointers here and there but I mostly was attempting to find my own way into understanding photography.

So there you have it, another one of my early rolls of film for you to look at. I plan on continuing the Fro Film Project and sharing other rolls of film I have shot.