In an effort not to get emotionally attached to my pictures I try to forget what I photographed. Often that works quite well. I take so many pictures that only very few stick in my mind for a long time and sometimes I even forget about some of the best of them. Then when I come back to them while I edit, I have little surprises and sometimes I can’t even remember at all why I was walking around in a certain area. When I travel things are different though and those pictures stay in mind more clearly for a while. I just can’t help remembering if the pictures don’t disappear into the blur of everyday routines. This makes editing difficult sometimes.
While I wait to post certain pictures – I’m always behind – I might look over them again, see which ones start to bore me and which ones stay with me. And then after I post the pictures they disappear from the screen, not to be looked at again until the next time I print. When I select pictures for printing every few months, I don’t even look at the ones that I don’t consider the best. Only the highest rated pictures in the catalog are even considered and of those only very few make the cut. After printing I evaluate the pictures again, maybe show them to a few people, watch their expressions and listen to their reactions. Inevitably there is another cut and a few more disappear from consideration. In the end I’m left with only a handful of shots after a few months work. Editing is harsh business. But then, a blog is not a portfolio. Here on this blog you see what makes the first editing stage – quite a few more than I would even consider printing. The blog is more like a notepad where I scribble moments instead of notes. Maybe my scribblings are interesting to some, but in the end it’s just another tool to get me where I want to go artistically.
Where is that, you might ask … well, I don’t know exactly to be honest. These days I have a feeling that I’m on the right path somehow even if sometimes I ruin a roll or have a day when nothing seems to be happening in front of the camera at all. But then I always go through phases where nothing seems to work at all, when I feel lost and aimless and everything seems boring. Those handful of printed shots that survived the editing are what I look at when I feel that I lost my way again. After 4 years of almost daily shooting, I’ve gone through my share of dry spells. The trick is to keep working and have faith that you haven’t taken your last good picture yet.
All pictures taken with: Leica M6, Zeiss ZM C-Biogon 35mm f/2.8.
Kodak Farbwelt 400 developed in Fuji Hunt C41 Kit.
© Lilly Schwartz 2015
Looks familiar to me. I don’t know this particular tree, but I’ve had my share of friendships with trees too. By the way, I still think the Kodak Farbwelt stuff has too much magenta blue in the shadows coming out of the Pakon.
© Lilly Schwartz 2015
In bright sunshine it’s not an issue though. Mother and daughter.
© Lilly Schwartz 2015
At the supermarket.
© Lilly Schwartz 2015
I think my ninja sneaking skills failed me and I got noticed.
© Lilly Schwartz 2015
A lot of wheels in this frame.
© Lilly Schwartz 2015
This was actually very cute. See the little kid in the background? Lifting and hugs came in the next frame, but my angle was all wrong. I liked this moment of anticipation though.
© Lilly Schwartz 2015
Yes, that is a pay phone …! I couldn’t quite believe it myself.
© Lilly Schwartz 2015
This one needed additional colour correction. It kind of reminded me of my former biology teacher who used to wear *a lot* of purple. Yes, it was that magenta!
© Lilly Schwartz 2015
Contrast overkill although I scanned this at the lowest contrast setting. The round bit was very reflective, almost pure white, and I was shooting almost against the sun too. The dark shadow on the right end of the stairs was a dog. On the street the light isn’t always perfect.