From the archives - five

Another selection of images from the past few years which never made the cut.

(Above and Below) Shot near Cardinal Place, these two images were from a publicity shoot as part of the “Create Victoria” campaign for Land Sec.

I also found this old one, also for Land Sec, from a shoot at One New Change, beside St Paul’s Cathedral, where they put on a (slightly gothic) fairytale event.

For Mousetrap Theatre Projects, this portrait was part of a feature on their Youth Forum.

This photograph was taken at Unum’s rather lovely headquarters in Surrey.

Actor Martin Freeman at an event.

From the archives - four

From the archives - three

From the archives - two

I've nearly finished going through my archives in search of old images which I'd originally dismissed. 

As I've said elsewhere, even strong images tend to fade over time, both due to familiarity, and as one develops or improves. But occasionally, I'll come across an old reject which, with a fresh look, away from context - and usually with a different edit - I like much better second-time around.

Out of tens of thousands, only two or three of these I've since dusted off, tidied up, and put up in my galleries. But dozens got close - and were then rejected again.

The photo below is from a series of portraits of musicians (initially all 3- or 4-star rated I expect) but I thought this particular one could be worth another look - was it really only average? Yes. I really wanted it to work - a simple, outdoor shot like this would go well on my website. And there's nothing really wrong with it - and technically and aesthetically it's fine, but something about it's just a bit empty, boring, flat:

No matter how revised or polished a photo is, if it's not working, it's not working. You can do wonders in post-production, but there has to be something in the original which can't be created later, which has nothing to do with adjustments or photoshop. 

It's important to be brutally honest and unforgiving when judging an image, but often, subjectivity gets in the way. Usually it's the lengths you knew you'd gone to to achieve the shot - you were so invested in it that it becomes personal. 

I think it's about changing your role once you've put the camera down and when you're going through the work on the computer. You have to become an editor - a different set of skills - because as a photographer you can't be objective. And as an editor, this image isn't good enough. Next!

Mixed bag

I had a week off... in the spirit of regular blogging, I've browsed my archives. The first image caught my eye, so I decided to search for other unseen portraits of ladies from the last couple of years.