“The Eyes are the Window to Your Soul ” …Wm. Shakespeare
Bangkok, Thailand 2007
I’ve told you many times not to discard your shots without scrupulous deliberation. As for me, I just buy another external hard drive to store all the shots that AT FIRST look like losers.
After shooting the floating market on the outskirts of Bangkok, we went to an elephant park. There the elephants do tricks for tourist who are mostly Thai. The atmosphere was free of rules and fences and admonishments that ‘elephants can kill you’. I was able to walk up to any elephant and try to get a shot. The problem was that the mahouts went about their business and I had to keep out of their way as well as try to get a viewpoint. I hadn’t planned a viewpoint so I was at a loss. But of course, I shot and hoped… it’s what I do.
Needless to say, when I got home and looked at my shots, I didn’t find any ‘good’ ones. Yet, yesterday, almost eight years later, I found this shot and I am happy with it. Does it look like this right out of the camera? No. But because I’d been working with other ‘secondary’ shots at Bangkok’s floating market, my brain was in the ‘let’s find the good in these shots’ mode. And for the first time I could see gold in this shot… the right eye is in focus. And it is open. And it has a catchlight. My right brain took over. I cropped the photo, made it black and white, and cranked up the contrast. This shot, even without the eye as viewpoint, would be a lovely abstract. Potential is everywhere if you look for it.
The original is below.
Original