Red Queen

187 photos to edit before I get to fully commit my eyeballs and stylus to editing the wedding photos I took 1.5 weeks ago. I am for ever playing catch up with my edits. It reminds me of Alice in Wonderland's Red Queen Quote: "Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do to stay in the same place."

It is not as simple as working through photos in chronological order, though that's generally how it happens. Every now and then I get an urgent request - photos to meet a publication deadline for instance, and so I prioritize those photos. Other times people only want a few photos (as opposed to a full set of 75-100 per hour), say for a head shot. I move those up in my priority list as I can get them out of the way quickly, and feel the great satisfaction of crossing them off my to do list. Often photos that I take that are not for work will fall through the cracks. If I don't edit them as soon as I get home, months will past and the photo that seemed so revolutionary at the time (like, say, the photo wherein I'd carefully placed the camera face up on the floor, leaned over it in a huddle with five friends, one of whom delicately pressed the shutter button with a dexterous socked big toe) will have been forgotten. (It didn't help that the photo was extremely unflattering - and I was the shortest - think about it.)

Anyways. There are photos that I look forward to editing. When this above scene was set up, my brain was immediately buzzing with the artistic possibilities. Compositional eye was So Happy. A brief description: in Indian wedding ceremony, the bride is separated from the groom by a barely opaque sheet. After some chants, the sheet is dropped: Surprise!

The sheet provided a great backdrop. Had the sheet not been there, the background would be a mottle of colors, from the audience and greenery. The sheet also provided a fantastic diffuse light, the most flattering kind of light. The focus is on her face, but then you notice the fine detail of her head accessory, and sleeve. Then you wonder what is written on the sheet. I have no idea. But more on the Indian wedding later.