Summer usually seems to be the best time to rework the portfolio. It’s hot outside, most are on vacation and work slows. So with help from Selina Maitreya I am going through my images in an effort to improve my vision. Yesterday I did something I haven’t done in a while – lay out all of my images and edit them down. It is a lot harder than it sounds. Doing this reminded me of a quote Selina heard from Henry Moore (English sculptor) – “Leave everything, start with nothing.” For photographers this doesn’t mean staring at a blank page, but starting with a raw image and applying your vision.
So staring at my images made me think “what will my new vision look like?”. Shall I leave everything and start with nothing?
Here is an example of what I am talking about. On the left is the original image, the right is the tweaked version. Is this the new vision? Do all of my images have to look like this? Will it work for all my images? All questions yet to be answered.
Keith Barraclough 
Just came to your blog via a tweet from Selina and kept reading.
If you’re contemplating the style on the right as your trademark style, you might want to check out Babak’s images (www.babak.ca). He has adopted a very similar treatment that he uses on all of his images, except for his client beauty work. Which also makes the point that you can have a consistent treatment, yet make exceptions.
Thanks Jan
There are a few photographers I found that do a similar treatment to their work. I’m not sure if I want to apply this to most my images – probably not. I guess what I am really trying to find is an improved vision. Sometimes I feel the style can over shadow the vision – a lot of photoshop masking a so so image.
I appreciate the comment!!