Giving yourself time away from a creative project can be beneficial in many ways. When you return to that project with fresh eyes you have a different perspective that you didn’t have when you were in the thick of creating it. This is a difficult concept to grasp when you’re a young new artist of any medium. Although I am by no means young and definitely not new to creating art or working in a creative field, I still have to remind myself of the benefits of giving myself distance from projects.

I was reminded of this fact this past week as I was searching through old photos to decide on a set of images to display in an exhibition I’m taking part in at the end of the year.

I came across this image that I took years ago. I vaguely remember looking at after I developed the roll but for whatever reason I didn’t like it and didn’t mark it for scanning or printing.

I probably thought the image was to busy and had no clear point of focus. The viewer wouldn’t know where to look first.

When I looked at this image with fresh eyes this week I saw potential in it. With a little bit of a crop and some overall and localized exposure adjustments it could be a strong photograph. This version of the image is after those adjustments.

I made these adjustments in Photoshop but since my adjustements are basic in execution and I did no painting out of anything or compositing I could have achieved this look in the darkroom as well.

I’m happy I came across this photo again. It’s a good reminder for me that taking a break from projects can sometimes be beneficial, whether that’s a singular photo or a larger photo project.

-Craig

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