Wrong, right

This is not a seascape. It may look like one, but it really isn’t. For a while I had no idea what it actually was, and I didn’t care because it was a blurry mess. So I discarded it, like I discard a very large portion of the shots I take. Sometimes because I missed focus, sometimes because they are blurred, sometimes because they are badly exposed, and sometimes simply because they are bad photos. But here’s the thing; occasionally it’s not the photo that is “wrong”, it’s me. I just didn’t see through the initial impression it gave me to see its true value underneath.

Routine editing decisions that normally work to save time can lead to discarding valuable photos because you forget to see what is really there. It’s a trap I sometimes fall into, but have recently tried to turn upside down, or inside out, or … well you get the picture.
So, I went back to that shot at the top of this post, and realised it looked almost exactly like the kind of shot of the sea that I wanted to make for years. Some thoughtful editing revealed what had been there all along. A keeper. And it belongs in my portfolio. I also figured out how I made it. It turns out I took it through the window of a train from London to Canterbury. But it doesn’t really matter because it works better a seascape shot.

When I finally understood this I thought it a good idea to write it all down in a blog post dedicated to “wrong” photos that turn out to be completely “right.”

Here are some more: