Best Foot Forward Vol. 2
Too damn cold out
If you are new here, welcome! This is Volume 2 in my ongoing series documenting getting out there and just doing the dang thing, even when it can sometimes be the last thing you want to do.
In this volume, I look for a reason to get out in the cold. January can be bitterly cold here, with the icy wind coming straight off the Atlantic and punching us all right in the face, which is exactly what was happening when this volume took place.
If you haven’t seen Volume 1, you can check it out by hitting the button below.
Frozen finger on the shutter button
From January until April, it’s unrelenting here, even when it doesn’t look cold. Trust me when I say it is unbearable. So how do I get my butt out there when it’s so cold that there’s nothing happening and no one around and my fingers feel like they are about to fall off?
In this series I’ll put my best foot forward to document this process and any other challenges I face when out shootin’ photography.
In spite of the cold, I got out there. I tried to frame things a bit differently than how I might normally do, exploring composition and then further experimenting in the edits as opposed to my usual SOOC photos, I was just having some fun with it, cause why the heck not.
What do ya’ll prefer, straight out of camera/no edits? Minimal edits? Crazy stylized edits? Me personally, it depends on the image. I’m not one for heavy edits, I like to have as film-like a quality with as minimal edits as possible, but I’m definitely guilty of overcooking my images in the past. These days, I’m usually SOOC or minimal edits to add filmic qualities. Leave a comment and let’s talk about if and how you edit!
All images shot with Fujifilm XT-30II w/ 18-55mm f2.8 and edited in Lightroom
Stay focused.
Great photo essay! I love how they all work together. - As for editing, it’s really about your vision. You’re the artist and you choose how you wish to show your images. It took me a long time to realize that editing isn’t cheating, it’s just another part of the process to get the image to look how I want it to look.
I absolutely love the two images with the water! 😍 I think the first image of this post is my favorite. It gives a great sense of scale and provokes a feeling about how big this world really is.
For my work I prefer the least amount of edits possible, and it’s one of the reasons I shoot film. Personally, I find the editing process tedious, and I don’t always know when to stop. I find I can select a film stock to help convey the mood or final image I want without much (if any) editing after scanning. When looking at other’s images, I prefer a lighter editing hand. I don’t like photos that look over the top or unrealistic, but I also think it’s heavily dependent on the scene and what the photographer is trying to convey.