original photo IMG_9725
This is the original photo taken October 3rd, 2017 at 7:26 am. I had a home on a lake at the time and in early morning light I saw an egret sitting on my dock. I grabbed my camera and headed out to get a close up only to startle the bird and watched him fly away disappointed. I headed out to my dock in case he landed nearby and was just enjoying the morning although there was a light rain, almost a mist in the air--conditions were dark and not at all ideal for photography. Yet it was a good moment to be outside and I found myself enjoying the peace and quiet of the early morning.
Now the photo--As I was panning the lake looking for the egret I heard a commotion across the lake that could only be a large bird attempting flight. I lifted my camera just in time to see one of the many Canadian Geese that frequented our lake taking off across the bay--about 250 yards out. I instinctively put my camera to my eye and let the shutter fly capturing about 10 shots in the course of the next few seconds. My settings were not right for the light or the speed needed to capture the bird attempting to take off--iso800, f5.6, 1/60sec shutter speed and 250mm lens setting, Canon Rebel xsi. When downloading the photos I was disappointed with the results--but I knew I would be. Normally I would just hit the delete button and chalk the morning of to experience but something in one of the photo bursts caught my eye. Thus I decided to not delete the batch and made a file and basically forgot about the photos.
About a year later I found myself immersed in competitive photography on a site called GuruShots. There was an upcoming contest called "Beautiful failures". GuruShots has about 2 million photographers from throughout the world that compete in a platform where the contestants vote on each other in a blind format. Some of the best photographers in the world are on display and the competition is intense. Challenges are ran by those photographers that achieve the highest level (Guru) and earn the right to set their own theme. Challenges have anywhere from 5000 to over 100,000 participants all vying to win, make top 10 or top 100--as you can imagine it is extremely competitive with only the best photos rising to the top of the ranks. I very much enjoy the site and have achieved Guru Status, have 7 wins and have hosted about a dozen challenges myself. Combining my competitive nature with the ability to showcase my photography against some of the best photographers in the world and to compete at the highest level is great fun and through GuruShots I have come to know and call friends photographers from all over the world. I will write a future blog on competitive photography but back to my favorite mistake.
The Beautiful Failure challenge description was just that--photo failures that in their own way were art. My goose taking off photo came to mind and I set out to find it in my archives--which was a challenge in itself as back then I did not use keywords or any discernible method for looking up my photos--just the date taken. Once found I began editing with my editing platform of choice--ACDSee Pro (I am a big fan as unlike the new version of PhotoShop, you buy the software, not rent and your photo filing stays on your computer, not on their cloud site). Here is my first edit which I entered;
goose taking off third edit
Editing was not all that extensive with the biggest and first edit removing the sign in the background, then applying light edits and some color enhancements and finally sharpening the goose and splashing. The unique aspect of this photo is it's almost double exposure quality that was a result of my camera moving while taking the shot. The grain for the most part was kept and the streaks of the rain coming down gives this a kind of a painting look that some have said reminds them of a "Monet" painting--cannot say I disagree. The photo made top 100 out of approximately 10,000 entries (as I recall) and I was happy with the competitive results. I have since done some further edits and below is an edit where I 'bleached' the photo to give it a minimalism quality.
goose taking off 5x8 crop
So I guess the morale of the story is to think twice before you delete and even a photo failure can turn into a unique and beautiful work of art. One final edit of the same photo below. Thanks for reading and I will enjoy any comments or feedback you have to offer.
goose taking off second edit
