There are three major skills in photography: shooting, editing, and processing. Editing is by far the most difficult. To make this list of twenty pictures, I had to edit down from the 30,000 frames I shot this year. Of course, most of that work was already done-- I only selected from the pictures that I had actually put up on Bluejake. But even that list included more than three hundred images. To choose, I went through all of this year's posts five times. I was looking for images that really stood out on their own, as well as a few that were reflective of larger themes in the work. That took me down to a list of about twenty-five images-- I went through that list another five times, and cut these five images, which were close but not quite there. It was hard work winnowing down from 30,000 to 20-- but editing is like weightlifting-- it's a skill that improves with exercise.
Looking at this list, I see some hopeful signs of a signature style beginning to emerge. It has something to do with the muted colors, the wide angle, and the emotional detachment. Let's see if those themes continue to develop in 2007.
Happy New Year-- and many thanks for visiting Bluejake.