Dead Wood
© Photo by Andy Brown (mrbuk1)

Description

I've mentioned before how much I generally enjoy processing my photographs, as opposed to the arduous task I know it's perceived to be by many. The problem is, due to the time pervasive nature of coaxing life from your own RAW files - of pushing all those little pixels around until they start to behave as you want them, it's all too easy to get hung up on the tricky problem areas encountered along the way. Every shot has them, whether it be an unfortunate shadow, a miscreant patch of cloud, an unwelcome obstacle creeping in to frame (yes we all check, but when will 100% view finders become standard?!) - and that's all before the technical battle against colour fringing, chromatic aberration, barrel distortion, haloing, dust motes, poor dynamic range and lens flare... I'm something of a perfectionist you see - but if you're not troubled by these things then congratulations!
There are files I've processed from start to finish that have been blissfully short on this list of transgressions - a joy to work with every step of the way. It's almost as if they're in a hurry to have their own narcissism fully realised, whispering ideas to me as to which direction they want to be taken and how best to achieve it. 'Try this, try that - no not that, this - there, simple see?' I like those files. I love those files. If I could I'd have each one lavishly printed on archival fine art paper (perhaps for especially good behaviour even employ the brilliant Jeff Gaydash's piezography printing services - you want it on aluminium? Why ever not?!), prior to being proudly displayed for years to come.
Then, inevitably, there are the bad files. The ones that refuse to cooperate, the ones that need to be kicked about, wrestled with, poked with a pointy stick and beaten into submission (I do all this with presses of buttons and swipes of a mouse - it's witchcraft I swear) before they start to reveal signs of promise. Even then they have suicidal tendencies and left to their own devices will lurch from the nearest cliff or stubbornly devolve into a horrid mess. These are the files I have spent many, many frustrating hours with - the shots that could be great, that have heaps of potential but are blighted by a resolute desire to underachieve... These are the files that you will probably never see - the ones that hide amidst my hard drive shunning the light of day. I hate those files. I loathe those files. I shared an email exchange with Richard Fraser recently, where I stated that I felt I needed an alternate photostream for my photographic 'b' sides. He sympathetically made mention of what he felt to be his own 'c' and 'd' sides. I fear should I search too long in that hard drive of mine I shall reach the end of the alphabet long before him...
Hopefully I didn't let too many of the latter type appear in Dodho online photography magazine - dodho.com/andy-brown-photography/. Many thanks to them for getting in contact and featuring some of my work.

Tags

Water, Vignette, Trees, Submerged, Stormy, Sticks, Square, Split Tone, Spiky, Sky, Skeletal, Shoreline, Shadows, Rotten, Reservoir, Reflections, Petrified, Neutral Density, ND Filters, ND110, Movement, Motion, Moody, Mono, Long Exposure, Lines, Light, Landscape, Lake, Jagged, I Said Dead Wood, Not Jedward, Horizon, Fine Art, Decay, Dark, Creepy, Cloud, Burnt, Black & White, Atmosperic, 10 Stop