take 30 days before forming an opinion

February 1, 2015

Recently in early January I visited Price County, WI. Walked along the south fork of the Jump River snowy sub zero temeratures. I was lucky to see along the far shore of the river a pair of otters playing in the water, jumping in and out of the river. Playing on the ice and diving back in.

This could be a lesson on the neccessity of using a tripod with a telephoto lens. Handheld telephoto tends to blurr a picture. These otters are in the far distance so I shot the set using 300mm my len's maximum range.

I shot many pictures and only a few are worthy of consideration. At the time I was very excited to see otters, the same day I thought I shot some really awesome pictures. You can see my favorites from that day on Flickr.

In retrospect they are not my best photographic work. What learned is not that I should use a tripod. I learned 30 days can give a lot of objectivity. The memory of the otters is faded, separated from the experience the photos can be looked at with a more critical eye. What I thought was awesome on January 1st, is not always awesome come February 1st.

I suggest to add time into your photographic workflow. Allow a 30 day buffer. Take the pictures, same day label and tag then set aside for a month. A month separates the experiece from the photos. Time and distance gives objectivity to choosing your favorites. Plus its fun to see what you may have fogotten in just a month.

Cheers,

Kelly

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