It only took a couple of weeks after I got my first DSLR to come across a shot that actually stuck with me.

It also took just a couple of weeks to recognize the pained expression on the faces of people I photographed. I filled those few weeks taking scores of photos of just about anything or anyone at all. Including the same handful of family members, all of who ready to do unpleasant things to me and/or my camera. Even family pets were tired of me sticking a camera in their furry faces.

Continuing…

One hot sunny day in mid-July, I found myself at a run down cattle ranch near Byron, IL. (More on the “why” of that in a future post). A viewing platform between pens caught my eye. The chairs seemed to be telling a story.

I liked the idea that all the chairs lined up along one of the cattle pens were in complete disarray. A single chair facing the adjoining pen was neatly upright.

What happened? I have no idea. It was just fun to think of the possibilities.

Anyway, believe it or not, the picture itself is not the point of this post. This post is about….I mean seriously. Can you NOT see how badly I botched the finishing of this picture?

The crop is weird…I screwed up any leading lines I might have had. I completely toasted the color correction, in a effort to make it more “striking.” And I jacked around with clarity and focus to give it a more “dreamlike” overlay.

And the worst part of the story…the original file is long gone. This is a JPG export of the original.

Yeah, I know…I can still play around with it. Barely. But you just cannot unscramble a scrambled egg.

This was my first exercise and lesson in the KISS principle (and the true value of keeping external backups of originals). And even today, 6 years after this picture was taken, I haven’t truly wrapped my hands around post production. Most of the time, I just get lucky.