Tarnished; A Portrait

Tarnished; A Portrait, Black-and-White

“You aren’t going to stop posting your photography after Day 365/365, are you?” is a question I found myself often asked as the end of the year approached.  Well, I guess that requires a bit of an explanation…

Despite my best efforts otherwise, I still did post a shot-of-the-day for the full-year in 2010.  While doing a shot-a-day demands creativity to keep your work from going stale, it also seems to force me to sacrifice a bit; a question I found myself repeatedly asking while staring at two pictures would be, “What if you need a fall-back subject to photograph in the future?”  In the end I would always keep shots to myself to save the ability to re-shoot them in the future if I was struggling to find something to post.  Furthermore, in my rush to get something posted, I would often later find that I didn’t even post my best shot on the given day in the first place; going back through the past year in photography, anyone with a sharp memory will notice that I occasionally supplemented a given post with additional pictures to do justice to my work on that day.

Going forward, I hope to change this approach, skipping days when life gets in the way, but sharing multiple posts on days when the photography or stories warrant it.  Furthermore, I plan to relax my timeframe to post a given shot, so it will become increasingly common to see lost shots posted from my library that were from weeks or months prior.  I anticipate this leading to higher-quality work and more variety.  But enough talk. We start the year with a portrait.

“An artist’s only concern is to shoot for some kind of perfection and on his own terms, not anyone else’s” – J.D. Salinger

Category: Portrait | Tags: , , , , , |

5 responses to “Tarnished; A Portrait”

  1. Anchor Lee says:

    Wow, the eye is so sharp. Great shot!

  2. scott says:

    Congrats on making 365! I get everything you’re saying Mike. I hope the new year brings a new enjoyment to your photography and more time for things that matter most to you. Thanks for the pictures.

  3. Brilliant detail in this portrait. Good work with the lighting!

  4. rici says:

    Beautifull portrait!

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