What've I done?

I had the opportunity to look at some really old pictures of mine recently, and was shocked at the difference between then and now.  Mostly I'm sad.

(2007)

I've sense learned some technical things about my camera, cameras in general.  I've learned that rule-of-thirds shots are more aesthetically pleasing than stuff right smack-dab in the middle.

(2010, film)

I look at these pictures and think, "Why did I ever think I needed photoshop?"  Photoshop is a wonderful thing.  It provides an opportunity to do things with photos that you can't with the camera, but sometimes pictures are just beautiful anyway.

(2006)

My question now is, "Do I want to do those things?"

(2010)

I think its all deviantArt's fault.  There are so many beautiful pictures there that are very hyper-saturated, and I wanted to duplicate that.  I wanted my blues to be so blue that your eyes water.  I wanted my yellows to be yellow-brick-road.

(2009)

I think I want to go back.  Back to the originals.  Back to just taking good pictures, and only editing them when I need to.  I want to get back those pictures that I took and immediately loved.

I'm not saying that I hate what I do now.  I just want to be better.  I want to take my style back, instead of trying to make my pictures look like all the thousands of others I've seen.

I'm going back to the beginning.

(2006)

(2006, film)

(2007)