The image on the right, at least, you may have seen before – I believe I’ve used it twice on the blog. I stumbled across the version on the left while searching for some images for a present project, and it’s only two frames previous to the right one. Both of these are not cropped, by the way – I’m impressed that I managed to frame the two of them so closely together while clearly having moved the camera significantly in between. But we all know how easily impressed I am with myself (otherwise this site wouldn’t even exist.)
Okay, if you’re trying to find five more differences, don’t bother – there was only one. Or one that I know of; if you found more, tell me, because there was only one change that I made intentionally between frames, and if there’s more then I’m really curious who else was screwing around out there. Not that it’s going to do me any good now, since it’s been twelve-and-a-half years since these were shot.
But yes, that rock – I decided the composition would be stronger without that lower rock in there, and removed it carefully so as not to stir up too much silt – if I remember right, I waited a short while for the water to clear, and the time stamp tells me there was about 90 seconds between the frames, so no evidence of age-related incompetence yet (I thought I should qualify that.)
I realize that a large number of viewers might react in horror over the prospect of interrupting the natural order in this way, and believe me, I debated about even posting this – there’s a distinct chance that it will make me a pariah in the community. Okay, more of a pariah. Okay, I don’t really belong to any community to begin with. Okay, the words you’re reading constitute the sum-total of my social interactions, period. But I can still agree how terrible it is that I interfered in this way, and I truly feel ashamed about it. If you’re reading these words, it means someone else came along and posted a draft that I had sitting in my blog folders because I never could admit to this on my own.
As for the frame in between? I can find no sign of it, so apparently it didn’t pass muster and was discarded – I know, I know, I’m sorry, but it happens sometimes, even to me. Even seasoned professionals find events occur outside of their control, once in a great while.
[Just because my conscience is making me, I feel obligated to point out that the ‘average’ keeper rate among professional photographers seems to fall around 25-33%, meaning they throw out two to three times as many photos as they keep. There’s a lot of variation, of course, but the message to anyone is, there is no such thing as always taking the photo that you wanted or intended.]
While looking to see if I had that intervening frame someplace, I stirred up another set of images from the same trip, taken within a few dozen meters. On at least one occasion, I thought one might make an appropriate “greenery” image, until I realized that the thick and vibrant plants in this frame are almost entirely poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans.) Not the message I wanted to send at the time, at least.
