For the past several years I have been collecting photographs. I’ve spent a lot of time reading and learning and photographing, but I wasn’t ready to process all of them. I had a vision for how I wanted the finished image to look, but I didn’t have the skills to make them match my vision. So, they have been sitting on my computer patiently waiting. Their wait is coming to an end.

I’ve spent a huge chunk of 2014 learning to process my images to match my vision. Back in April I was selected by Karen Hutton to be part of her cohort in The Arcanum . I was quite lucky. Not only was I one of the first people selected to be part of the beta test for The Arcanum, but I was chosen to work with a wonderful woman and photographer who was able to guide me (along with the other 15 apprentices in our cohort) exactly where I wanted to go, yet she never told us what to do. She encouraged us to explore and try and reflect and do. And we did. I took tens of thousands of new images and processed many of those. I received feedback from everyone in the group and had one-on-one “critique” sessions (more discussion than critiques, really) with Karen. And my photos evolved.

When I started, my images were very literal and captured moments in time. But, they often lacked impact. They lacked a powerful story backing them up. Karen encouraged all of us to experiment with processing. We were left to our own devices to figure out what that meant for us personally. For me, I hunkered down and dove into more liberal developing in Lightroom and onOne‘s Perfect Photo Suite (especially Perfect Effects) and then some Topaz software (Clarity, Detail and Adjust). I learned to have fun! I learned how to add impact to photos so that I could convey my feelings, not just a moment in time. Not every experiment was successful, that’s part of playing and learning. Some were way overdone. Some I didn’t push quite far enough. But some of them were “just right” and made me happy. I learned from all of them, and the ones that were “just right” started to grow into a style. I’m sure my style will continue to evolve over time with more playing and reflecting and learning, and that’s a good thing! For now though, I have the beginnings of a personal style that makes me happy and I feel ready to tackle many of the photographs that have been patiently waiting for me in my Lightroom catalog.

Here is one of the lucky photos that has been waiting for me. I took this one a couple years ago. It was late afternoon, getting dark when I drove past this open field with a few trees on the edge just dripping with goats beard lichen. It was cold and ice fog had engulfed the trees and lichen and frozen to them. I loved the textures and subtle colors in the trees, but at the time my processing skills couldn’t bring those things out the way I wanted them to. The other night I pulled this image out and knew just how to get the look I wanted. Thanks Karen!