The Photographer

 

This simple snapshot was a bitch (don't like using that word, how 'bout... bastard?) to edit. And I usually hate portraits 

    with smiling subjects, but... Viva La Excepsion!        Photo: © Stan Banos

The winter months have come and go, usually the time I work on my B&W negs. This winter season I had planned to start working on my B&W panoramic negs, most of which are not damaged- unlike the majority of my B&W archive (god, it still hurts like hell just saying that). But I didn't work on a single one. 

Sheer laziness? Not really. I simply noticed that a good many of my color images were not up to par. Everything from something as basic as misjudging contrast to obvious color shifts, an inconsistent array of both heavy handed and insufficient editing. And every time, I was like...why hadn't I noticed that before? Pretty much what one would expect from someone with very limited color experience and even less expertise with editing software. 

A handful needing help popped up immediately, and the more one looked, the more others became apparent... So I quickly found myself immersed in doing the necessary, cosmetic nips and tucks on my recent color archive (commenced in 2016); some, pretty simple fixes, a choice handful requiring almost as much time as some of my B&W wounded (almost). 

And throughout that time I found myself becoming more attuned and familiar with this still new (to me) medium of color and its distinct myriad of diverse subtleties and nuances- a medium I'm still having a lot of fun with and will probably spend the remainder of my years exploring. 

PS- The photo above looks considerably better than it did before, and maybe every bit as bad when I give another look some years hence...