The Processes of Time
How sometimes distance is needed to evaluate your images
I made this image on a workshop in the autumn of 2024. We spent the afternoon visiting a beach with lots of boats and huts - usually a happy recipe for me. I set up a composition on the first hut to get myself into the zone and then tackled one of the interesting features of a second nearby hut.
There was some interesting modern covering that was reflecting the blue sky above that I thought might make a strong image.
As usual, I got excited about the idea and spent an age setting it up. It was tricky to focus and compose - I was pointing diagonally along the side of the hut and using lots of swing to hold the focus from right to left. I couldn’t get the image to work or focus properly and I got increasingly frustrated with things. I felt I was fighting all the elements. The race against time with significant tides to worry about didn’t help. Eventually I got set up and (with help to shield the lens) made the alternative image. I thought I would be fairly happy with it at the time and relaxed, happy at least to have made an image. I was sure it would be strong.
I then spotted the main composition above on the first hut again and moved the gear back over without even packing down. It was a two-minute setup composed almost on instinct and with very little conscious thought. It was only when I got the images back home that I realised that my feelings about the images versus expectations were reversed. I tried and tried to process the alternative image to my satisfaction and couldn’t. At the time I put it down to subject failure. It felt to me more like a technical exercise than a meaningful image.
The main image, however, was as easy to process as it was to make and has much more substance and significance. I had a portfolio of images underway focused on the processes of time and the melancholy feeling of the decaying hut roof fitted the portfolio perfectly. Sometimes instinct wins out over brute force! As does having a portfolio concept in order to slot images.
The alternative image is one that grew on me significantly after I finally forgot about the pain of making it. Although I always conduct preliminary selection and processing as close to making the images as possible, it is also true that it is often difficult at that point to detach yourself from your feelings at the time of making. I eventually worked out how to process the image well two years later and I now quite like the image. Sometimes that objective distance is needed as well as improvements in the skills to handle such images.
