If you’ve dabbled in art or photography for any length of time, you know there are some buzz words that you are supposed always have on your mind. Exposure. Composition. Noise. Focus. (to name a few)
And if you’ve dabbled in life for any length of time, you know that accidents happen. Things don’t always go as we plan. For me, as a photographer, happy accidents make the world go round. Not all accidents are happy, mind you, but I think it’s easy to discount some of our shots or artwork because it didn’t come out with the proper exposure, with the rule of thirds, with a low noise level. In short, it didn’t come out they way we expected. The way we hoped. And I want to say maybe we should let go of that a little…
This is a photo I took in California 2 years ago. When it first passed across my Lightroom screen, I almost deleted it. Why? Because I was there, and I knew that there was water and sky in what I saw with my eyes. Clearly I didn’t do a good job if the photo didn’t look like exactly what I saw. Or did I? Thankfully, those blues and greens on the right made me take a second look, made me feel something, and I realized I really liked the mystery and emotion behind this shot. We’re not sure where this father and son are. We’re not sure who they are. It’s highly overexposed. By all photography standards, this shot is imperfect. Lacking. But last summer I had a solo exhibit, and I printed this piece on watercolor paper so I could paint and draw on top of it. I loved the way it came out and had a blast working on it, so I look forward to exploring this medium more in the future.
Moral of the story? Just because a shot isn’t perfect by textbook standards doesn’t mean it isn’t perfect for something. (and maybe there’s a lesson about life in there, too somewhere…) 
