Photography has a dark side, something that I loathe, something that makes me want to pull my hair out and shout “why me!!!” ok… I’m being WAY dramatic but really, it’s not fun. It’s called culling, it’s when I go through the billion and one photo’s I took and choose the best of the best. A lot of people might think they want them all, but I can promise you…you do not. It is overwhelming and generally frustrating, I’ve actually done research on this because in the beginning I was like “why would I just give a client 30, 40, 60, images from a day when I take so many?” (Lots of photographers only give 30-50…ok most photographers… but I still was like “why do you do it!??” ) then I found the answer, it’s overkill…it’s way too much for the clients to go through and what should be a fun exciting experience becomes frustrating and overwhelming. Also, I can’t give each image the photoshop love everyone expects from me and really make it shine if I am giving you hundreds of photo’s. It.would.take.forever.
I take a lot so that I can catch that great wonderful moment that you really want to see and I cut out the blinks and the squints and the generally not wow worthy photo’s. Trust me…if it’s a good photo, you’re going to see it. But the process of choosing them, of going through all the photo’s, it’s painstaking and I take it very seriously so it takes me some time. I really look at each image and try to analyze it to be absolutely sure it should either stay or go. That is the first thing I do… I go through, I pick out the best, then I choose some from those and I blog them. (ok not all of the sessions make it to the blog… I need to work on that. I’m slapping myself on the hand right now) Right now I’m in the thick of preparing a blog for a recent session but I thought it was a good sign that I loved the very first shot of the day. He looks sort of serious, he’s definitely sizing me up, but there is something absolutely angelic about his face (ok, he’s absolutely beautiful so that may be it) but also something in his expression.. I don’t know it just gets me. I was so excited to start culling and see this one pop up first… I was like “oh…this is going to be a good session” It’s like a good luck charm. I will post a proper blog later today with many more from this session but in the meantime here is one, the first one.