Precious

It’s spring. It has finally sprung. Cold air is becoming a thing of the past. So, I went out walking and looking. I found this little shoot just starting to pop up after a long winter. It stopped me cold and said, “Hey you, take my picture.” 

Since it was Ma Nature telling me that I obeyed and took the picture. Never ever mess with Mother Nature. Humankind is gonna learn that in a few years if we don’t start taking climate change seriously.

Anyway.

There’s an unrelated part two. I do that sometimes.

It is my use of the word precious in the way that I did. I think it is more of a British usage than American.

The way I used it isn’t so good because it implies a certain kind of elitist way of doing things. The way that I used it meant thinking highly of each picture in a way that implies perfection.

You know what they say about perfection. Trying to achieve it just makes sure that you won’t ever achieve “goodness”. You get so wrapped up in some little detail at the expense of the bigger picture.

Here’s an example in the ink jet printing process. Once, my photo friend called me asking for help. He’d made a good picture of a boat near a dock. Low light made the picture very attractive, but of course it heated up a couple of colors in the image.

One was this little bitty triangle less than 1/2 inch square. He wanted that to be a certain shade of yellow that he couldn’t get without harming the entire picture.

I told him to leave it be and accept that little patch of yellow was never going to be what he wanted. He must of thought I was useless. Sometimes I am. But, not this time.

Here’s why.

If you remember, I used to print books on huge commercial presses in Hong Kong. That was my excuse for living there.

Presses that are used to print books are usually organized in forms of 8 to view, or, 12 to view, or 16 to view. That means when the paper sheet comes off the press you are looking at more than one page at time.

You alway want the fewest pages to view because… the more pages you look at means the more compromises you have to make in terms of what each picture looks like.

Generally, you sacrifice one picture for the good of many. Sometimes you sacrifice many for one big hero picture.

You have to make that choice. And, you have to make it in seconds or the press crew will think you are indecisive and don’t know what you want.

So, you have to learn the art of compromise, the thing my photographer buddy hadn’t learned,

At the end of the day (Another Britishism), don’t be so precious.