thomasholmphoto

The Thinker in nature

Added 2025-03-10 15:00:03 +0000 UTC

This is V Wild Art (aka Venusdesierra) embedded in nature in Zion National Park, Utah.

It’s all-natural light, with a lot of gorgeous nooks and crannies in the rock. Honestly, though, it’s not among my best work. It has some nice tones, a decent flow, and an okay emotional feel. But after finishing it, it just doesn’t have “it” - so it ends up being just “nice.”

As a photographer, I believe it’s important to develop an ability to detach yourself from the situation and your love for the scenery. You need to be able to step back and more critically evaluate whether what you’ve created is truly great or not.

It’s not art just because it’s different; if an image doesn’t speak to you, it’s a “meh.” We all produce plenty of those. The real trick is learning to spot them quickly, not wasting energy trying to convince others it’s pixie dust, and instead just moving on and creating something better.

And if you wonder about why I edited and posted it here, there is an excellent explanation.
I don't always know if something will be great before I start editing it and working on the tonality.
And sometimes, I lose interest while processing.
I've learned that this signal tells me that this image probably doesn't have longevity.

Then, I post it anyway to make it into a teaching experience.
Some concepts are hard to explain, and personally, I often need examples to understand a finer point about something, so I try to provide that to you too,