As photographers or educators, or both, we all work hard. The business of photography is not an easy one, especially these days, when the value of photography seems to be going down instead of up. So, what does this photograph have to do with all that? Read on …

Fortunately for many of us, our work is appreciated.

But photography is hard work, whether you are a pro or a so-called amateur. Amateur, remember, simply means that means you don’t earn the bulk of your income from whatever, in this case, photography.

You have to scout out locations, wait for the light, and if the light does not happen the way you wish, you may have to return several times to get it right.

Then, there is the matter of working on your composition, doing what we call “border patrol,” waiting for the shadows or clouds or patches of sunlight to get to the right place.

Editing, editing, editing. Which of all the “frames” you have done is the best? It can be a tough decision. Personally, I usually don’t fire off a lot of images of a scene, because I do not have the time to do a lot of editing. It is much easier for me to wait and try to get it right the first or second or possibly the third time, or I won’t have time to write this blog, or answer all the BCPA e-mails, or work on my own images, or …

Sure, there are times that I have quite a few images in a series. There are subtleties to the flow of a waterfall. The position of the kite-surfer can make all the difference. Our youngest grandson, aged two-and-a-bit at the time, was riding his no-pedals, two-wheeler down a steep trail, and I wanted to catch the action.

And we have not yet discussed the post-processing time. Margo’s Tweaks (you alumni know what I mean) are a great starting off point, and if I am sending something off to Great Aunt Minnie, as I call her in our workshops, they work pretty well. But if we are putting something on the website, we need to tweak them to our satisfaction. After all, cameras are just computers. Just ones and zeros. The different camera manufacturers each have their own takes on how to render the color for us. I don’t happen to agree with their rendering, although it’s certainly a start.

The upshot of all this is that we need to take a break, thus the photograph at the top. We need to get away from photography, refresh our brains.

Many of you read about our thwarted, Fourth-of-July picnic, and you saw the pool arrangement.

Hmmm, I thought, that sure looks inviting!

So, I took my Kindle outside, arranged our grandson’s bath toys around the edge so they could dry, got into a comfy position, and read for a couple of hours. It was delicious, and very refreshing, both in terms of being able to stay outside in the summer heat and in terms of taking my brain out of the office.

My verb for this is to go splat. That does not mean do a face plant. Rather, it means to utterly relax, and that is exactly what I did!

So take time yourselves to go splat. You’ll come back to your photography with a rested eye and a new view.

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