I’m gaining on it…

I’m gaining on the backlog of unedited photos. As one of three faithful readers of my blog, you’ll remember my last post in which I confessed my lack of discipline and my commitment to shooting no more photos until I had waded through the seemingly insurmountable number of images I had yet to process. Well here’s an updated report – I’m gaining on it.

As for statistics, metrics, measurable achievements, etc.? Forget it. Too much of a left-brained activity. I need the right side of my mind fully engaged to get through this, especially at the end of a long day of the type of left-brain work that pays the bills and keeps the cats fed.

But me being me I can’t do anything halfway. I’m utilizing my normal workflow which begins with selecting the proper image to work with. Beyond that, it’s edits in Bridge/Adobe Camera Raw and Photoshop. Most of the images are going pretty quickly and can be processed in ACR, but some are taking a little longer. Again, not satisfied with half-butted approach, some of them are taking some time. For example, this shot of my precious Yashica-Mat took some time to get right. The backdrop wasn’t perfectly smooth when I shot this and had some very subtle shadow areas. It took a lot of experimenting to get it looking right, most of which was spent with a curves adjustment layer and then masking to try and get the background evened out with no highlights or shadow areas behind and beside the camera. The curves adjustment layer was successful, but trying to get a perfect mask around the camera without spending a great deal of time was a challenge. In the end I didn’t go that way at all. On a whim I decided to try the spot healing brush and found it worked like a champ. Took about a minute to fix the background. Wasted time? Hardly. I learned something and that’s never a waste of time. Here’s the final image.

I’ve been meaning to get a good shot of the Yashica-Mat for a long time now, only to realize I got a great shot of it a year ago and promptly forgot about it. I know. It’s a shame, but I’m rectifying the situation. I’m happy with my decision to get on with it and get the backlog cleared up.

Is it driving me nuts to not be firing a shutter? Somewhat, but it’s only been a week at this point so I’m dealing with it. I find I’m still taking pictures with my mind when I see an interesting shot so the mental practice is staying alive. It might even be good to keep me seeing without a camera getting in the way. That happens sometimes.

The ultimate results of my self-imposed photographic exile will be worth it. Let’s face it – if the process nets me a sock monkey shot I’ve forgotten like this one, it’s totally worth it.