Too Easy

This morning I was thinking about what makes a photograph interesting to me.  My conclusion was that I liked photographs that can be reinterpreted every time I look at them.  They always seem to offer something new to be discovered.

The above image has, at least for me, those characteristics.  Every time I look at this image I create a different narrative of the circumstances surrounding it.

I also like the "beautiful image" that will be interpreted the same whenever I look at it.  However, they will never create that mystery of discovery that certain images convey.

Luck and Exploration

There is a famous quote by Chuck Close to the effect that photography is the only media in which you can create an accidental masterpiece.  Not that the above image is a masterpiece, but it happened because of a happy accident.

I was adjusting the level in Photoshop and accidentally moved the adjustment too far.  All of a sudden, the veins were enhanced and the luminosity was improved.  I had had no idea the image contained so much unrevealed detail.

This brings me to a related topic: exploration of the image.  While it is possible in traditional photography to explore an image, digital photography provides both the opportunity and the tools to more fully explore the possibilities of an image.  Most of us have some concept of what the final image will look like at the time we take the picture.   However, if we live with an image awhile and have the craft skills to know and execute what is possible, often a different, and even more interesting, image is revealed.