Great Horned Owl

So here is the result of all that scanning that was done by the Scan Cafe- I found many of my old friends! Images that I hadn’t seen in many years that used to be my favorites and that had been hidden in the dark alleys of past technologies were suddenly in my computer, up on my screen and slapping me in my face saying “Remember me!!”

It’s interesting looking at the pictures I took 10 to 20 years ago. I was pretty good back then! Not as good as I am now but not horrendous either. The difference in my photography is small but important; I am much more aware of subtle aspects of composition and subject choice now then I was then. Almost all of the old images have some minor flaw that I now would’ve corrected before I pushed the shutter but that I wasn’t aware of then. This is to be expected. The process of mastery in any pursuit is the process of increased awareness to ever smaller details. And besides, you want to look back and realize that you are better now then you were then. This means that you are still learning, still improving, still climbing the curve. If you look back and realize that back then you were better than you are now then you have already crested the hill and you are rolling downhill, regressing to less mastery. Not a good thing.

Looking back on these old friends also made me realize all the places I used to go and loved but that I haven’t been to in a very long time. Texas wildflowers, Oregon Cascade old-growth forests, polar bears, Denali, etc, etc are all spectacular places that I haven’t photographed in more than a decade. It’s time to go back and say hi to old haunts.

So those of you with piles of slides stuffed away in dark corners take the time to root through them and see what is there. I bet you will find some old friends of yours and find some old desires to go back to those places and photographing them again. Besides, it’s January, what else are you doing on a cold winter’s day?

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