Starting over?

[srwatters]

Has anyone else considered trashing their entire portfolio and just starting over from scratch? That's where I'm at right now. I tire of looking at everything that I've shot with the exception of maybe 5 or 6 images. Everything else bores me to death.

So who else is (or has) chucked it all and started over? And why did, or do you want to, do it?

For me I'm thinking three prime lenses and the H2/P45 only. Opinions?

[Robin Binder]

I think of it all the time; Then I get a new muse or inspiration to try new things. I do advice people it's good to post their lastest stuff because later you can look to see how you have grown and thats a lesson on itself. I look back at photos and think, What was I thinking. lol

Those are that days I want to trash it all and start over. lol

[3n-Out]

I think everyone that is the "artistic" world goes through that. Remember, that's what got you here. :) always a good thing. Imagine how musicians feel when they listen back to their music years later.. Nerve racking..

[Bruce M. Morris]

Scott,
maybe instead of Trashing the current one.. set it aside. Do the new one you are thinking of, come back to the current portfolio in 6 months see what you have wrought in your studio....

[BKing]

It's a temporary feeling; it'll pass. Consider it only if you feel this way a month or two from now.

[JohnT]

Originally Posted by 3n-Out

I think everyone that is the "artistic" world goes through that. Remember, that's what got you here. :) always a good thing. Imagine how musicians feel when they listen back to their music years later.. Nerve racking..

Don Henley of the Eagles has said that, when he hears some of the group's earlier music, he can't stand it. LOL

[Tom]

I am in the middle of that now. I've done it before as well. Quite refreshing.

[JohnT]

Yes. When I want to humiliate myself, I look back at my early efforts. Then there are days when I can't stand anything that I do photographically. Typical of artists, I suppose.

[Robin Binder]

Originally Posted by JohnT

Yes. When I want to humiliate myself, I look back at my early efforts. Then there are days when I can't stand anything that I do photographically. Typical of artists, I suppose.

Its good that I'm not the only one that feels this way. I think we can be our worse enemy at critiquing ourself 6 months down the road; or the next morning. lol

[srwatters]

I never completely throw away image files. They all get archived. I'm talking about my OMP, MM, and other online portfolios. I'm going to prune them down to what I think is the best work I've produced, then build on that with all new photographs. I'm shooting ONLY for myself from this point on. If someone wants to work with me, great. If not, there's the door. I know it's a luxury and I'm going to take advantage of it because I can.

Now if I can just get the floors finished in the new studio, I'll be off and ready to go...

[ChristopherCoy]

Originally Posted by srwatters

Has anyone else considered trashing their entire portfolio and just starting over from scratch? That's where I'm at right now. I tire of looking at everything that I've shot with the exception of maybe 5 or 6 images. Everything else bores me to death.

So who else is (or has) chucked it all and started over? And why did, or do you want to, do it?

For me I'm thinking three prime lenses and the H2/P45 only. Opinions?

Perhaps you're just shooting too much of the same thing, too frequently.

[ThePhotoBinder]

I try to do it every6 month to year. I either delete the one I feel really need to go off my online port or I move them more to the back of the portfolio.

I think change is good.

[venchka]

I'll let you know when I get my portfolio built.

[jeffkohn]

I kind of know what you mean. My pbase gallery contains pretty much everything I've ever shot that I felt was worth showing to somebody or posting online, going all the way back to when I started 4-5 years ago. When I look back at some of those images I wonder what I was ever thinking posting them. I definitely wouldn't want to be judged by everything there.

I'm not going to start over from scratch since I do still like some of what's there. My plan is to create a new, separate portfolio of only my best work on a new website. I actually have a Zenfolio account for this purpose, and even a domain name. I just haven't gotten around to doing anything with it yet because it's such a daunting task. Not only will I have to go through all my images and decide which ones make the cut, but then there's also the matter of organizing them in a way that makes sense, as well as maintaining a consistent format/presentation for the images, titling, keywording, etc. It was my New Year's resolution to get this done in 2009, but I don't think I'm going to make it. Maybe 2010 will be the year.

[klynam]

EDIT - Just looked at your site - now I remember you and your work. You're a talented pro with top of the line equipment (double wow on the equipment) and a clear handle on your portfolio. If I were to suggest anything - and I'm not sure it's my place at all to do so - forcing yourself out of the studio could could provide some refreshment for you. Intentionally put yourself in situations where you don't have all that control and let your skills and creativity start working for you. Also, allowing yourself to experiment more with post production may open some creative windows and air things out...

The rest of this reply is more for everyone else out there struggling with reinvention or preparing a portfolio...

I have a little time to kill so here we go...

The challenge is objectivity. We are all very close to our work, and can easily think too much or too little of it. I battle this all the time. Just when I start getting that "yeah, now I'm in the groove" feeling, I look back and think my work is just blah. Everyone tells me "wow, you photos are awesome" but all I can think is "no, I'm just being safe and programmatic because I know I can nail those shots. If you want to see REALLY good work then go look at _________'s website."

Every image we take throughout our career sits between our one very best photo and our one very worst photo, with distribution along the classic bell curve. Spending too much looking at work in the middle of that curve can be depressing - especially with ALL the amazing work you see every day on this and other forums (POTN, Flickr!, everywhere.) Sometimes you can get so sick of seeing your own work (or comparing it to others) you want to blow up everything and totally reinvent yourself. Gear, techniques, style, marketing, everything. An interesting challenge to be sure, but not always necessary or wise to do.

If you depend on photography for your income, think very carefully about reinvention because you're going to erase most if not all the professional equity you've work hard and for many years to create - and probably live on raman noodles while you build up again. If you have other primary income, or are just rich for a living, then by all means reinvent yourself as often as you want.

But you needn't blow it all up either. You can reinvent yourself in small ways all the time. Identify a technique or style you really dig and spend some time learning to master it. Once you do, start adding it into your offerings. Don't ask clients if they "want" it, just do it and wow them with it.

In regard to portfolios...

Generally speaking, it's best to rotate your portfolio keeping your freshest and bestest out front at all times. (You can always have a "classic corner" of personal favorite work.) This will help you avoid that stagnant feeling.

In design school - probably the same w/ photography school - our most important final semester class was "Portfolio."

We began by reviewing everything we did in school up to that point - everything! We analyzed our work, identified the pieces that had the most potential, and began redoing these pieces for our final portfolio.

There would be two portfolios. First was a subject portfolios of specific work in each of the primary fields: business identify, advertising design, graphic design, production, etc. Second was our master portfolio which had the best of the best work from each subject collected in a single portfolio.

There were two ways we could go about building our portfolios: a) we could choose the pieces we liked best - not recommended; b) we could attend portfolio showings where industry professionals and teachers selected, ranked and discussed our work with us - highly preferred. Take the subjective element out of the equation and you'll get the BEST work selections almost every time. And unless you make a living buying your own work, it's best to offer what other people like.

If you feel you've lost objectivity about your own work, why not do the same thing?

Divide your career work into galleries: portraits, landscapes, macro, etc. If you mainly work in just one area - such as portraiture - then create sub categories of that: high school seniors, families, babies. Now go back as far as you you can and select your best 20-30 photos in each category.

I didn't say select only the photos you like - I said pick the best you have. On a scale of 1-10, you may think most of your images are a 4. Fine, pick the 4's and 3's and leave out the 2's and 1's. You're purely grading the work you have against the other work you have - not against other people or the market or what you think is good.

Next, put each gallery up for peer review. You can do it here on TPF using the poll feature, or do it physically at a local restaurant or community center and invite photographers in your area to come review your work. You need two rankings on each photo: 1-10 in the specific gallery, and 1-10 overall.

Take the 10 best in each gallery and give yourself permission to add 3 images that YOU like but others did not select (or didn't get enough votes to make the cut.) Your subject portfolios are now DONE.

Take the 10 best overall images and give yourself permission to add 3 images that you like but others did not select (or didn't get enough votes to make the cut.) You master portfolio is now DONE.

From this point forward you have two things to decide about every image you take:

1. Is the photo good enough to displace an image currently in your subject portfolio? If no, then you're done. If yes, then make the replacement and go to question no.2

2. Is the photo good enough to displace an image in your master portfolio? If no, then you're done. If yes, then make the replacement.

If an images isn't quite good enough to displace an existing image, but you just feel is good enough to be included - then give yourself permission to included it. But this is the CRITICAL POINT - never allow yourself to have more than 20 images in any gallery, or in your master portfolio!!!

If you do this, it will FORCE you to stay on the top of your game and you will find yourself in a constant reinvention process - challenging, growing, and succeeding - without sacrificing any of your past experience and equity.

JMHO...