Breaking slowly to reveal a new perspective

The wind blew through with a ferocity not previously experienced. If I’d known, I wouldn’t have left the artwork propped atop the shelves and wouldn’t have assumed its bubble-wrap cocoon would keep it safe.

I try to avoid renting places where the front and back doors are aligned. Feng Shui says to avoid situations where the chi rushes through, where there’s nothing to encourage it to meander. This is probably why. It was the loudest of crashes.

But before clearing it away, the camera must see if there’s anything it can make of this disaster.

Let’s stick with the theme of surprises. However, unlike the mighty crash from shelf to floor, the next phase was much gentler.

.

.

The starting point

I laid the frame down on the floor and ignored the camera’s viewfinder. What will it find without me? My arm waved across and around and up and down while I clicked the shutter button … whenever and often.

.

The mid point

On the first run through, the results were disappointing. Nothing particularly jumped from the screen. I left the project to one side for months and finally returned to it today.

.

.

The process

How do you sort through 87 images? How do you cull them, leaving only those with some potential to be further culled as you move closer and closer to the end result?

I start with an Archive folder, which holds (almost) all the photos from that shoot. (The really really dodgy ones are deleted.) I then copy the folder and call it Processing. In here, I start selecting images for further work – cropping, adjusting, rotating – with each adjustment becoming a new file. The final version is for web publication, compressed so the longest edge is 1200 pixels (the size my blog uses).

.

 

.

Finally, the web publication files are copied, titled and ready to go.

.

Today’s result

By cropping quite severely, by looking for small patches of interest in largely uninviting images, I found three that hold the viewer’s attention. They hold my attention, so I hope others will react the same way!

I wonder how they will look printed as big as the original piece?

To view the images individually, click on them to open the gallery.