My work flow for editing pictures goes something like this:

  1. Download images onto computer.

  2. Promise myself that I will look the images over casually and then step away. Distance myself from the work.

  3. Ignore promise to myself and try processing “just one picture.”

  4. Work deeply and steadily for over an hour trying to make pictures conform to some idea I have of how they are “supposed” to look.

  5. Feel frustrated. Shut down computer. Go to bed.

  6. Fall asleep dreaming of pictures.

  7. Wake up and try again.

  8. After a full night’s sleep and a good breakfast, all of the crappy pictures now look beautiful. What was I thinking last night?

  9. Return to file folder many times over a period of weeks (and sometimes months and years later) and find treasure in what I could not see at first glance.

  10. The whole of editing is seeing possibility. And maybe letting go of expectations.

Both of these pictures were taken with a point-and-shoot camera, the Yashica T4 and Kodak portra film.

Sometimes I think I take pictures because the words come to me too slowly. Finding the right words feels like an archaeological dig where each sound and syllable must be uncovered, where meaning must be excavated, brushed clean and interpreted. But pictures feel like poetry.

On the Point | Yashica T4, Kodak portra 400

One Picture/One Paragraph

We call this place the Point, as in Let’s walk around the Point, meaning the tip of the peninsula of the small town of Colonial Beach. Where I am from. When my sister got married on the pier in front of our family restaurant, we all drove around the point honking horns and waving. My niece waits tables at the Dockside restaurant at the marina on the Point. And when my mother died, she rode in the hearse around the point one last time. Most every town has its traditions and special places, this is ours.

I am learning huge lessons about how to see. It’s a kind of sensitivity training to look at life through different lenses, a way to shine light on what I need to see. These pictures were taken with two film cameras: a Pentax K-1000 35mm and a Yashica T4 point-and-shoot. No fancy gear. No swapping out lenses. No golden hour light. Just a January day warm enough to go outside without freezing. A walk around the place that feels most like home to me. Time to reflect on the many ways and many times I’ve changed my mind.