So this video is meant to kind of inspire
Everybody and kind of poke fun at me, but but everybody at the same time because we've all been there
Everyone's a rookie at some point so I thought I'd take this opportunity to critique my very first photographs
We're gonna dive back like 13 years plus and look at the very first photos that I took with my canon rebel in my little
HPR
607 we're gonna critique them, we're gonna look at them we're gonna laugh at them
And I want to show some comparisons from then until now kind of proved a little bit of a point
But inspire everybody to know that keep putting in the work because you will improve and you probably already have improved, okay
So with that being said, let's start looking at some terrible photographs and disclaimer
This kills me a little bit inside to do because like some of these are bad some of them are really really
bad
I
Think it's also
important to say some of my very first photos were taken on this my sister got this for me as a gift for being a
Part of her wedding party and at the time. I was like oh cool a camera with you Thanks
I was more concerned with like my kill death ratio playing Halo
I was just gonna return it get the money and like maybe buy some expansion pack and some new maps came out
But I decided to give it a shot dragged myself over to Best Buy grabbed a memory card bought an extra battery for it started
Taking photos, and then suddenly started taking more photos and more photos and more photos, and I was like. Oh this is fun
There's more to life than Xbox Live
Do not even know where to start, but let's let's just start somewhere like oh
This is like a it's like a self roast. I I don't I don't want to do this at all okay whoo
Let's dive back. Let's check the date on this
Let's dive back to 2005 October 29th 2005 the day after my birthday
13 years ago ready
I
Mean photography aside you can see I had terrible taste in clothing
I'd like to point out shirt number two that's a Tim Hortons uniform
That was one of my very first retail jobs selling donuts and coffee
I quit that job when they asked me to clean the grout and I said what's grout they're like it's the stuff between
Tiles and it's like I'm not doing that you're like you have to that's your job
I remember saying cuz I've no my job is to sell time
No, my job is to sell doughnuts not cleaning the grout and my punk ass put on my rollerblades. I skated home
My first taste of anti-establishment nice framing. You know left-justified
Great gamut of colors totally blown out background. I remember buying this paper roll
It's just thinking like oh. I am Michael a full-on pro now
I also love my my watermark that font is like the second cousin of Comic Sans so that's just a massive offense right there
That's it let's take a look at some more
Pile of leaves there's a funny thing about this choose because very early on when I started photography
I joined up to a stock photo website stock photos. Hadn't really exploded yet, so the market wasn't really saturated. I think I made like
20,000 dollars off of this photo and I was like a punk-ass kid over time mind you wasn't like one day
But that's it took a photo of a pile of leaves put it on a stock called a website along with some other terrible photographs
Started making money straight off so I was pumped on this photo, but I mean there's nothing nothing special. It's not bad
It's not good. It's
Yeah, also I love that the resolution of all these edits are what is it seven hundred by three hundred
I was really thinking ahead with that perfect
I would take full-size photos and compress them down to less than a thousand pixels because I was thinking ahead this photo
I actually don't mind like this shows some depth of field. I actually like the lines in this photo like the leading lines
You've got the reflection against the back of the piano
You've got the Black Keys the white keys in the wall and everything kind of points forward
I'd love to see some kind of payoff at the very end of the photograph kind of like the shadow on the Black Keys
Looks like my watermark font has changed yet again
I also like this this weird drop shadow fake photo mat that I was putting all my photos on
Super-modern okay, what is this labeled junk?
It's a photo of a dumpster I wouldn't even begin to be able to tell you why I took a photo of a dumpster
But I think what shocks me even more than this
Awesome photo of a dumpster is the fact that I water marked a photo of a dumpster just in case someone stole it Wow
Yeah, I mean I got nothing to critique on this. It's just bad all right
What's the stage this doesn't even have a name? I'm just open this one
Well folks there it is
there it is Peter McKinnon photographs a splat of paint on a brick wall at the worst angle there I
Who takes a photo like this like that might be the worst one yet, just awful I?
Wish I had some kind of clever excuse to tell you like no it was I was trying to get assets for this paintball
Poster that I was working on for this client, but no it's just it was just a young paps young PD Pabst
Just just out there trying to be creative trying to find his way trying to make his mark
awful with Front Street
This isn't bad either. I remember taking this photo
I remember being pumped on this photo like I remember taking this and thinking oh
That's the cover of a magazine
And I think what I liked about it is the same thing I liked about the piano keys is that it just?
It's like a long tunnel you got all those lights going straight down one thing
I do remember when I was editing this like way back was the gap right here between the first two lights
I really wish there was another light there, and I think I tried to Photoshop one in but I had zero skills with Photoshop
So I didn't even know how to do that so I settled with this
I also don't like the car at the very end of the payoff that needs to be like a
Silhouette of a human or somebody standing there or anything better than the front half of a sedan that bugs me a bit
But I'm happy with this photo. That's decent. That's not bad
oh Here's a fun one look at this this was one of my first video cameras off Terra 20 look at that road mic on
It's not even a road mic look at that shotgun mic up top little fisheye lens on there
So you get close to some skateboard action mini DV tapes those were the days. Yeah Wow come a long way, okay?
Here are a few photos from the HP camera, BC plane
Zero composition like the bluest sky, it doesn't even look like a sky
It looks like a model plane on a blue paper background. I still watermark everything. That's just not good
That's just not good at all. Let's get okay. Let's go move on
oh Here's a fun fact check these out
So because I was in the stock photography because it was one of the only ways I knew how to make money with photos we
Used to go into model homes on the weekends or after school and keep in mind. We were like young punk kids
We'd walk into these model homes
And I would just start taking photos as fast as possible because you get kicked out in like five minutes
But look at these like I even watermark to them PM interiors
Hilarious I used these in my portfolio
so I would go into these model homes and just start shooting because everything was set up for you the kitchens always look great the
living rooms look great every room looked great so go in and the open house was there and the agent would be in there and
I just walk in and start shooting they like can I help you and I think no I'm good
I'm good, and they figure out what I was doing and it kicked me out
But I would at least get like three or four photos before having to leave that place you could see like the brochure is
Hanging huh? Oh my god
I guess I missed that then I would take these photos and upload them to a stock photography website as
Interiors and try to make more money that way I'm impressed with that here's another hilarious comparison check this out
This is my friend, Bobby you guys know Bobby from the video. I made him spend $6,000. He's getting into vlogging
He's a Mentalist and this was one of the very first photo shoots. I got paid for professionally
This is right after we met we became friends, and I was like. I'm a photographer. I would carry business cards everywhere
I went and I would like pitch to everybody if they needed photos did not matter this was no exception
The difference is Bobby actually paid me for this one of the first people if not the first person to pay me
personally for a photo shoot
I think it was 500 bucks, and I was blown away that I could make five hundred dollars doing a photo shoot
I'm still today
I can't even believe he paid me to do this
But you know, maybe he was just trying to be a good friend right from the get-go maybe he needed the photos
Maybe he thought they were good we both thought they were good long story longer. They're not good
So these were shot in 2008 so years ago a decade ago. We both look different now
You can see the compositions at least better
I've got him like not Center not too far to the right kind of just in that sweet spot
I get what I was trying to go for with like that grungy graffiti background
But the problem with this shot is I have him too close to that background
I needed to have him come like ten feet ahead so that background was blurred out
You could still see the grunge and still see the environment, but it wasn't competing for him. He's the focus of this photograph
I need to be shooting him not the graffiti in the background, but when you look at this photo
You're thinking yourself what am I like this? There's just too much going on so that would have solved that issue
I think I was probably trying to photoshop his face and make it look like smooth, but like it. I just overdid it
It's over smooth. It looks way too smooth
The skin just looks weird and glowy and I'm not a fan of that at all so not the best not the worst
But yeah, not good. Here's another not good photo
It's pretty bad. If you ask me
I don't know what's going on with the railing like dominating the shot the creativity as far as composition goes is it's okay
And you guys will notice this too
If you look back at your old photos like it's not like I'm trying to justify this shot. This is a bad shot
I appreciate what I was trying to go for place him down below on the stairs kind of shoot from the top
But you know there's psychological aspects with photography as well this makes him not look as established in the photo
He's looking up to the lens like if I wanted to make him look cool in like a badass and like you wanted to hire
The sky like he was someone important. I wouldn't be shooting down
I'd be shooting up to make him look like the hero of the shot so right away the
Psychology of this shot is totally off the black-and-white is flat. The light isn't good the composition with the stairs
I'm okay with that, but the rolls should have been reversed. He should been on the upper deck of the stairs
I should have been below shooting up so now let's take this photo shoot
That was 10 years ago, and as an example. I did some photos for Bobby last year and now look at the difference
So first thing you're gonna notice is the quality because obviously 10 years of technology cameras are way better
They're way sharper their way clearer image sensors are so much better
Thank you, but the composition the lighting the thought that's going into each frame is a lot more now
It's ten years of experience to get photos like these and these are the shots you're seeing on Instagram from everybody
These are the shots you're seeing people post you're not seeing them post the first ones. Here's another one right
It's all about that lighting and like that took me 10 years to figure out is that lighting is the biggest part of?
Photography, you don't have good creative light isn't matter what the subject is. It's just not gonna look good
So being able to fuse and mold this light and get it to light the right side of his face
And part of the left side of his face and give Bobby
Dimension in this shot are the things that I've practiced and learned over these past
You know decade-plus of taking photographs
And here's another one same thing like using flash putting in smoke that kind of thing
catching that light in the
Background so that it just kind of coasts over his shoulder and gives me some nice lens flares the same thing with this
Here's a good example of putting Bobby in an interesting background
But not too close to the background like we did with that graffiti
So you can still see the room and what's going on?
But he's far enough away from everything in that room that it's not distracting like he's still popping. He's still the focus
Ya only took me 13 years to figure that out, so
All of this to say if you see a photographer online if you see a cinematographer
Online and they put out an incredible edit and it discourages you because you think to yourself comparing that to my work
I'm nowhere near that and that's so good
I don't know how to get there like what's the point of even continuing when there's people like this just shredding
That's the same thing of photos. I'm never gonna get to that location. I don't know how to use lights like that
I don't have that equipment like I just can't compete with that and these photos are so good
And then I go back and look at mine and think to myself. What is the point of any of this?
Everybody feels that way and everybody posted the photos from when they first
Started two years after three years after even five years after whatever
It just wouldn't be as good as the ones they're posting now, so you've got to put in the time anyone is gonna
Tell you that you have to put in the time
You can't just pick up a deck of cards and start blowing mines and being
proficient and
technical and nimble
Knowing how to feel a card knowing how many cards are in a deck if you pick up a deck and there's three cards miss
And you know instantly that stuff doesn't come day one that stuff takes years and years of practice
To the point where you can make it look completely effortless without having to even look, but doesn't come overnight
and that's the purpose the premise the
Objective of this entire video is to inspire you to say that even your hero is the people you look up to the people you?
Learn from the people you follow online your friends your peers your competitors doesn't matter
Everybody started somewhere and everybody had to put in the work to get to where they are now I mean
Let's end with one more like look at this
There's like a full-on Gaussian blur over this entire photo like no depth
It's just it's just awful
but I haven't seen body and
Ages like I used to go he does a show every Friday and Saturday night down in the city
I used to go hang out with him all the time and like
Hang out in the little back room where people would do his soundboard
I used to do tricks for people and like I just you know what we should do that
We should go surprise him right now and show him these photos
Yeah, hundred percent Avenue
Oh, it's so cold. It's so cold so cold. It's so cold all
Right, this is my secret entrance. I never actually go in the front of this building where he performs a
secret knock knock
Still works
Dude it is so dark in here dark is mysterious. You're about to go on now right yeah, I'm sorry
I'm laying back here waiting with a cold one for the guy and
Knock-knock-knocking the whole theater is full of people you show them the old photos. Just did just today. No you didn't yeah I
Showed them the p-side warmer you're flipping the peace sign in front of that graffiti. We'll see these photos
I'm sorry well. Let's just say Pizza improved over the years
He's a big improvement over what it used to be I thought you might use that peace sign photo for this
I just telling them I used to suck and you were the first person
To pay me money for photography first gig who the first gig I remember I was like 500 bucks
But like done, then those photos were amazing yeah, that's what I was saying. I got thought they were good bachelor photos. No
You paid me 500 bucks. You're like you're like how much is it gonna be and I was like um
$500 and you were just like yeah, I'm perfect and Pete was like he was like he
Said to me he's like I am so happy right now. Thank you so much. I'm like dude. They're great photos
Don't get on the photos. Never go I'm gonna follow now. This is gonna be fun. Even I got my backpack on
I'm auntie why mama vlogger I gotta go. I've been Peter MacKay shameless plug in this blog like and subscribe