Do you feel like you are progressing in photography? Have your skills improved as you have bought newer and more expensive gear? How do you know?
Periodically a notice pops up in my Facebook timeline reminding me of a posting that I made on that date in a previous year. I post at least one photo daily and I have no idea how the Facebook algorithm decides when to present me with a memory and, if so, which one to use.
This morning, Facebook reminded me of the image below of a North American Beaver (Castor canadensis) that I posted seven years ago. Wow—seven years ago is in the distant past, only six months or so after I had started to get more serious about my photography. At that time I was shooting with a Canon Rebel XT, an entry-level 8.0 megapixel DSLR, and my “long” lens was a 55-250mm zoom lens.
It is almost a cliché for photographers to state that gear does not matter, but I think that this image demonstrates that there is a truth in that cliché. I have more experience now and better gear, but I would be hard for me to take a better shot today. Nothing is more important than being there, as all wildlife photographers know well. The informal motto of the Postal Service seems to apply to us as well— “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.”
Click on this link if you would like to see the original posting from 2013 (and judge for yourself if my style of posting has changed). For fun, I added a second beaver photo that I posted the following day, January 29, 2013—here’s a link to the original posting.
I don’t know about you, but I rarely take the opportunity to look back at my older images. Perhaps I should do some more often.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Mike Powell 
Nice Mike! Now and then I go back to look at older images and also to make more space on backup drives. Mostly to edit out images that are similar to others or just keep the ones in a series I like best. Also when I was working I did not have time to work on some of my personal photos projects which I am getting to now.
It is amazing how work can interfere with life. The freedom to work on personal projects and interest is amazing and makes me wish sometimes that I had retired earlier. To be fair, though, working only three days a week over the past seven years created a glide path to retirement that made the transition much easier.
The links don’t seem to work for me, Mike. However, I’m going to go with I have always liked your photographs, and I think 80-90% is the work that goes into being able to take the shot (not so much the equipment) and the eye for what will make a good image. You are and always have had those things nailed.
Thanks, Dan, for noting the non-functioning links. I thought they were working earlier, but whatever the case they were not working when I just tried them. I re-did the links and I think they are working now. I could blame WordPress, but it could easily have been operator error. 🙂
How interesting! Most likely force of habit had me enlarge the photos. Both beavers appear quite content going about the business at hand whilst ignoring a pesky photographer. I cannot help but wonder what Benjamin would have to say after examining the details of each one. I shall save this post for his next visit! Thank-you, Mr. Mike!
I suspect Benjamin will be intrigued by the activity of the beavers. At that time, there was a beaver lodge adjacent to a boardwalk and the beaver entrance was actually underneath the boardwalk. When I was lucky, I could see the beaver surface in the beaver pond, not all that far from the boardwalk. Normally this would be early in the morning when there were not many people around. If you want to show Benjamin a few more photos of beavers, check out these close-up shots: https://michaelqpowell.com/2013/07/18/snuggling-beaver/ and also https://michaelqpowell.com/2013/07/19/restive-beaver/
I think the writing style has not changed much, and the images are wonderful.
Thanks, Nina. I too feel that my writing style has remained pretty much the same over the years, which I personally think is a plus. My writing tends to be a direct reflection of what I am thinking or feeling in given moment–the personality that comes through in my words is genuinely who I am. I don’t prepare my postings in advance and most of the time I choose a photo or two and start writing with at best only an embryonic idea of what I plan to say.