A blast from the past

A couple weekends ago I spent time going through some of my old images and decided to edit a few that had never been touched before. This is one of those images.

The Divine

It was captured in 2016 and I decided to call it "The Divine" in honor of how lucky I was that the three main elements lined up so nicely - the sunrays, the seagull and the fishing boat.

The Divine is available as a canvas print in standard sizes up to 4 feet wide

The story of this image was typical of most of my photos back then. I did not have a specific shot in mind; I just knew that I wanted to return home with a few 'keepers'.

For aspiring photographers: If your interest in photography is new, then shooting random things is good. Figuring out your preferred style may require shooting all kinds for things. However, if you've been at this for a while, it pays to be more intentional about what you shoot, why you want to shoot it and how you'll shoot it.

Several seagulls lounged near a jetty at Portsmouth Beach Hotel and in total, I probably spent more than an hour observing them. From time to time one bird would peel away from the group and I would try so hard to get a closeup of the bird in flight.

I had no luck with those shots. First of all, I wasn't skilled enough and secondly, my entry-level gear wasn't up to the task of shooting fast-moving birds (see what gear I'm using now). After a while of doing this, I decided to try for a wider shot and eventually captured several versions of this one.

However, these images remained lost in my archives because at first glance, they were very unappealing.

1. The horizon was crooked
2. The color was a flat, dull, hazy blue.
3. And, there was no specific point of interest (in my mind)

To be honest, I'm surprised that I had not deleted these images.

The truth is though, my skill had not yet developed to a stage that allowed me appreciate finer points of this image.

Fast forward six years and the final image basically jumped out at me as I scanned through the group of photos. It was only a matter of chipping away at the proverbial block of marble in order to reveal the prize.

The Journey

Captured in 2017, the following image was also lost among a pile of discarded never-to-be-seen-again images. 

I visited Soufriere and Scotts Head with a group of friends and we ended up at the southernmost point in Dominica... known as Cachacrou. You have an amazing 360 degree view from that location, and I was able to capture this image of the village and the Soufriere/Scotts Head Bay:

Scotts Head Panorama is available as a canvas print in panorama sizes up to 5 feet wide

However, while they were enjoying this beautiful vista towards the north, I turned around and spotted a vessel on the horizon. I took the shot, not expecting anything much, since I was facing the sun and the ship was quite far away. 

But I came across the image a couple weekends ago and was able to create this:

The Journey is available as a canvas print in standard sizes up to 4 feet wide

This image required a more heavy-handed touch of editing. I redid the entire horizon and sky portion of the photo in order to create an even gradient from left to right.

I am very proud of both of these images. To me they represent growth and maturity in my skill as a photographer. I'm so proud that I entered them into an international photography competition known as the ND Awards.

Results won't be released until much later this year, but I am hoping that the judges see exactly what I saw in these photographs.

Leave a comment below to let me know your thoughts about these two images. Thank you for reading!