I’ve long held to the philosophy that it works best for me to edit and share my work as I go. There have been reasons this worked for me . . . and it’s kind of why this space is called a sketchbook. I love to brainstorm and try things out. I’ve lost count of how many techniques and approaches I’ve explored that just didn’t work for me. Knowing myself is hard. And trusting myself even harder. It seems I need to try things on, take them for a spin, before I know if they are for me.

Reading an article, How to Take Photographs on the Road, got me thinking. And now I am questioning my approach with regard to showing my work.

Just slow down, think and connect. Share when you have something cohesive to say, something personal —Daniel Milnor

Photographer Daniel Milnor offers tips for Road Trip photography and this one really spoke to me.

Should I edit and share as I go?

In my personal opinion, no. My philosophy on this matter is definitely in the minority, but I believe you can’t do two things at once and expect to do both of them to the best of your ability. This comes back to the personal aspect of the road trip, and how important it is. If you are shooting and sharing as you go, you are shooting for the audience and not for yourself. To do truly great photography you must be connected at a deep level, beyond the obvious, beyond the cliché, beyond the popular. I think personal photography needs to be marinated. Slow cooked if you will.

Often change and growth happen in small increments. Slowly. So slowly that we sometimes cannot imagine how we got from one place to another. How we veered off course or how we moved forward. We just know that we are some place different, some place new. We are different.

But once in awhile, change is more dramatic and quick, like the flipping of a light switch. Something happens—a passage read in a book or article that helps us decipher some code within our own psyche, a diagnosis or a medical report that clarifies some health concern, a new job that solves a financial problem, a prayer that is finally answered, a good friend who tells you what you need to hear. The event may be small or large, but either way, the effect is significant and lasting.

And there is time to weep for all that is lost and pull yourself up for all that is still to come. There is joy in every little thing. And there is time to play once again.