The Keepers

One of the hardest things about photography is editing. I might have shot 50 or 60 or even more images on a day or subject but not of all of them will be keepers. Actually most of the time none of them are keepers. The first edit is pretty easy. The ones that don't work are obvious but then the going gets a little harder. Does this angle or exposure work better than this one or this one? Okay now I might be down to 10 of the 60 but if I'm honest with myself I'm still judging the images on what I want them to be or how I felt when I pressed the shutter button not what they actually are. Now comes the hard part.

I found how much editing images can be one of the best learning experiences for a photographer the first time I had to edit a large project that I had worked on for several years for a show at a gallery. It was painful at times to admit that although I could remember every detail of the environment and making the image that it really didn't work or it didn't add anything to the show.

So far this year, I've made three images that I will take the time and make a large print of each one. Somehow until I decide to commit to making a large print, I haven't made the final edit. But sometimes even that isn't the final edit. What seems good when I make the print may end up weaker over time.

I know you have seen a couple of these images in a earlier blog but I thought I'd post the three all together. I can't wait to get my printer  back and see if these hold up printed on 17x22 paper. And if you are wondering, I am going to tell you the rest of the story about the printer being repaired but so far that story doesn't have an ending.