It worked this time. But, the computer had all night to reboot. Between the crash time and now it’s well over 24 hours. The computer is fast, very fast. We’ll see how it goes.
This is a new photograph. I made it using the RAW setting on the iPhone 14 Pro. RAW is usually the way to go because the file contains all the data just like a film negative does. It will create workflow problems eventually because it makes a 48 meg file that yields a finished 60 meg file. That’s before I do any real work on it.
If you are wondering, I think a 20 to 24 meg RAW is just about right for most things. With such a huge file like this one I can easily make a 6×4 printed photograph. That’s 6 feet by 4 feet.
On the other hand, the detail is amazing. Even though the leaf is overexposed because the phone’s camera was exposing for the dark areas you can still see the detail in it. The rest of the enhanced looking color is simply the result of stripping back the haze which is easy to do using OnOne.
Just to add another layer of complexity, this is the first take from Virginia. We were expecting five inches of rain from the leftovers of Hurricane Ian, but it has apparently turned and will hit Southwestern Virginia where my newspaper career began. Good luck and God speed to them.
As you know I’ve been working through my archives. Two things have been happening. The first is good, the second not so much.
When my slides were scanned for Lonely Planet Images and Getty Images they returned the slides after scanning was complete. These are the originals to images that I scanned on a sort of cheap Nikon scanner. These slides are the originals of the originals. I now use a high end Epson scanner. I’ll see what that yields.
The second thing is interesting, looking at all of this work makes me sad. I was a really good photographer once but I blew so many good opportunities. Missed opportunities will kill you. They certainly may have hurt my career.
In the old days, knowing that could set you on a course correction. Not today. The art world in general has changed so much that unless you completely pivot you can’t recover because 129,765 other artists have climbed past you. Trust me. I’ve been trying to rebuild my photo business for the last few years. The lockdown set everything back.
For me, it’s that we live in a world of, “unless it’s free this lesser image is good enough.” Buyers really like my work. But, they don’t want to pay for it. They want me to give them a picture for free… for exposure. Sheesh, I’ve been so exposed that I might as well never wear clothes.
And, so it went.
STORYTELLER 
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