Mining old images

Wyoming (Canon 20D infrared, 1/800 at f/7.1, 25mm, ISO 100)

I’ve often been asked if I edit all my images immediately after taking them. The answer is yes and no. The instant gratification part of me always rushes to edit the images I have the best “gut” on…meaning those images that I feel I really connected with and nailed. I can’t wait to edit those shots, while at the same time neglecting many images that just don’t seem to meet a particular criteria at the time, or those that I’m not as excited about initially. Now that I’ve amassed a photo library approaching nearly 75,000 images, I’m finding myself going back to review my not so obvious choices. I’m not going to lie. Some of these images aren’t obvious choices for a reason…they stink! But for every 8 or 9 stinkers there’s a welcome surprise that I’ve overlooked in the past. An image, that for whatever reason, I passed over for months or years simply because I didn’t have the vision for its direction at the time. It could be an image that I originally shot in color, but now I can see how it would work as a B&W, or possibly it’s an image where I just didn’t see the right angle or crop for at the time. Regardless of the reason, it’s silly to assume that as our technique and vision change, we simply should abandoned the past. The one sure fire way to look at an image in a new light is consider playing with some preset. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard people say, “Wow, it’s like looking at my images for the first time.” So here’s my assignment to you for those days when you can’t get out and shoot: Take a look at your library of images and go mining for some lost gems. Play with your presets, try a different crop, but most importantly have fun experimenting. There’s nothing like finding a new vision in an old image… 😉

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