The Reject Pile

My month at the gallery starts in just a couple of days. I have purposely avoided telling you which photos will be there so that any of you locals interested in visiting can be surprised (sort of--if you follow this blog, you've seen most at some point). But I will post more about it later in the month and eventually show you which pictures I chose. I don't know if I made the right decisions, but I feel pretty good about the selection.

The process of narrowing down the photos was an involved one. Since the last time I was in the gallery was spring of 2011, I decided to only go through photos taken after that point. That narrowed it down to about a zillion. I began going through my folders and saving a few that I especially liked. Sometimes there were several with the same subject where I couldn't decide, so I had some non-local friends vote on which one to consider. Finally I had settled on 42 options for the semi-finals, and through more voting by the non-locals, plus my own preferences, I chose 13 photos to print.

I valued people's opinions because I tend to prefer certain photos due to my experience taking them. I wanted outside perspectives so that my final pictures would be pleasant to look at, not just technically satisfying or challenging for me. Thanks to everyone who helped out!

Now I thought I would show you some of the 42 that didn't "win." You have seen most of these before, so hopefully it's not too boring to re-look. There are a few new-to-the-blog ones, too. Some of these already have me questioning why I thought they should be considered, but I know I had a thought process behind it at the time. I'm tired of analyzing it all.


At first I was convinced I wouldn't print any portraits, but I do enjoy portrait photography and wanted to show that. So I will have one portrait there, though I still like this one of Liane a lot. And here's something cool: I will be doing a fall portrait session with Liane once the color really comes in, and I'm really excited about it! Stay tuned.

Another portrait I really like, but I think I may be in the minority.

I'm second-guessing my decision not to include this one. I really like it, and it represents a subject and style I tend to gravitate toward. I may even print this one for myself sometime.

I had the idea to show a good variety of animals, but in the end I decided against some of these. They were fun and exciting to take, but I didn't think they really seemed all that pretty.

I really like the colors in this one.

This one got some votes, but I just didn't feel it was anything special.

These frog photos were not popular among my friends. I really liked the monochromatic look, plus the interesting (well, to me) subject matter, but I heeded their advice and left them out.

This one of Jennifer's kitchen was kind of thrown in for fun. Interior photos aren't necessarily my thing, but people seemed to like it back when I originally posted it, and I thought it would add variety. It got a few votes, but not enough to sway me.

I'm wishing I could go back to San Felipe and get more photos of the flowers and homes. I feel like I didn't take full advantage.

I do have a web droplet photo going up in the gallery, but not this one. I really liked this, but the other had more enthusiasm from friends, so I went with it.

Thanks for looking!