In some mysterious way woods have never seemed to me to be static things. In physical terms, I move through them;
yet in metaphysical ones, them seem to move through me.John Fowles
This photo took me longer to edit than any other to date. I shot the series of images (it’s a composite) on August 2 of this year. Just the shooting was a little tricky as it’s a self portrait, and I had a little trouble with getting focus and getting the darn remote to work! So I would climb down all the rocks and check the back of the camera, then trek back up the rocks. Then the remote wouldn’t work, so I would try it from another angle, then it would take the image, but I would be in the wrong place. Actually, I was somewhat convinced that I may not have any useable shots at this location at all. Kind of a bummer, as this was the last day of our stay in the Pennsylvania mountains.
After resting for a few days here we headed off to the beach. Due to vacation, I couldn’t start editing for over a week. On and off, I have spent the last 3 weeks attempting to get this image right. There are 42 layers overall–a lot of them are pieces of hair that I copied and moved to create a flowing movement; three of them are the flowing fabric, another is the color of the fabric.
Deep in the Woods
What I had envisioned in my head was not to be. The pose, yes. Flowing fabric, no. After working on it for hours, I’d have my honest-to-a-fault husband give me his feedback a number of times. “This looks placement looks weird” or “the fabric wouldn’t flow that way” or “the light is wrong over here.” It was all true, but a bit frustrating. Finally he said, “maybe this one’s not meant to be.”
“Yes, it WAS meant to be. I just haven’t gotten it right yet,” I’d respond. So I worked on it some more. Today, I got the approval, but something was missing. Fog maybe. Too bad I didn’t know how to do that. So I looked it up, tried it. Terrible results. Tried again. Bad too. Bah! Tried this that and the other. The color wasn’t right. The “fog” was too thick. It was in the wrong place. Aaargh.
The key is to step away. Sometimes, we look at a photo for so long that we get blind to what’s there. So I did some laundry and took a break for a little bit. Back to it, I free transformed the fog, added a black and white layer, changed the blending mode, masked out some of it. Still not quite there. Oh, how about lightening up the hair and the wooden stick? Yes.
Every now and again, maybe you should throw in the towel. I have one composite that I mostly LOVE. But I shot in natural light, and it took longer than I thought it would. Part of the photo is just too dark and I can’t get it right. And I used a hoola hoop that should have been painted prior to shooting because my “after market paint job” has not turned out too well. I know what I will change when I reshoot it. Maybe one day I’ll pull it out of the archives and see if I can rework it. But all is not lost, because I learned a lot.
When things are tough and don’t go your way, should you give up? No. Not until you’ve exhausted your avenues. Do you want it or not? I know MY answer.