Another bang out the 8.78 km Monday walk and get it done. A late start and it was still about 87º when I headed out.
Today I was reflecting on this post from Saturday as I hustled along. I was on a Skype call this afternoon with my dear friend Bob and we talked about those photos and the process. That's a good thing for me to do even though I tend to see things hypercritically, passing harsh judgment on my work. It also makes me want to make excuses for my warts. For one, there's a time constraint. My walks are anywhere from 1.5 to 2.5 hours, give or take. I don't typically time them but I do measure the distance. Stops in the garden or other collective photographic diversions on the days I go that direction are generally 30-40 minutes. That I know from camera data. By the time I get home I've got household stuff to do, make dinner, pay attention to my cat and do whatever's on my agenda for this time suck blog. Don't get me wrong, I like to do it, it's just a lot of work and little reward for the most part. I'm waiting for it to become the sum of its parts... or something. Saturday is not a typical example but I had 1,408 images to sort through, make selections, process and then post, plus the stuff I just mentioned--that was approximately 4 hours of stuff before I posted a partial on this blog. Basically I'm trying to do a good job while at the same time I'm banging this shit out. Aside from posting that at 12:04 A.M. silly me went for another hour+ preparing some images for the morning.
On top of that there's the level of merit. I'm not a photographer I'm a person who enjoys photography and I like to dabble in processes. Both production processes and post processes. If I've got something I think is really worth the time and the effort to be pixel perfect with I try to do that. If there's something I feel I can try to shoot again and do a better job I also make that effort. There's always room for improvement.
On my walk today I thought about my approach to all this balancing, good enough vs. perfection while trying to have fun and make things at least modestly entertaining for the average 12.58 daily viewers I've gotten so far since 041913. When I was critical of my work today it that criticism was used to ask myself how could I have done things better the next time, what types of images are lending themselves best for what I'm trying to accomplish, how can I make the process easier and less time consuming (hey, you never know when it might become a paid gig--time is money) and finally how can I better post-process if I decided the image warranted the time to do so. That last item is something I will do frequently just to sharpen my skills and validate my post process visualizing. I like to know that I can correct the flaws I see in my own work.
If you read this, I thank you.
PS, I just put the butterfly here to get your attention. The butterfly though is one of the images I took on Saturday which I asked myself how it could have been better. The solution there would have been one or two more images for the focus stack with the right antenna and the front edge of the perched upon leaf in focus... I was trying to do that but my model gave up on the gig.
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