Looking Back - Dinner can wait!

I’ve been pretty bad about transferring my library of images into Capture One catalogs.  In-between still dealing with the fall-out from our winter storm and flood of other things life has thrown our way, I stopped importing images into Capture One quite a while ago.  However, with the renewal of my Lightroom subscription coming next month, I decided I needed to at least get all of my images into Capture One before then. So I have started the importing process again.  The other day I was importing some images from 2015 and when I walked back into my office to begin the next import, the image I saw on the screen flashed the memory of making it in my mind and I saw what I needed to do to finish it.  I was supposed to start making dinner but . . . dinner could wait!

Sometimes the hardest thing to do when you look at an image is to remember why you made the image.  Often the image has certain qualities to it that make it clear clear why you made an image, other times it’s much harder to discern, especially if you’re really pushing the limits between how the eye sees and film (sensors) see. In those instances and image can often look bland and unappealing. But, if you can recall how you felt when you made an image, that is often a good starting point for remembering what you thought the image could be.  

I don’t recall having worked on this image.  Quite the opposite, I remember asking myself why I even made it when I got home from the trip (and had so many other images where that wasn’t the question, so those images grabbed my attention) and dismissing it as an unsuccessful effort.  But all that changed in one glance - the mood of the day and the fact that I thought of it in black and white instead of color made me realize why I made it, and also forced me to stop right then and there to work on it.  

It’s an image of Bridalveil Falls at Yosemite National Park on a gloomy, overcast day.  

And dinner didn’t have to wait too long.  It took me less than 5 minutes to make the few changes necessary to capture the feeling from that day.  The delay was worth it.