POTW 2025-11-17 ... an Afterward

  

- - -  “too much of a good thing”  - - -

 

On this photographic journey, the idiom “too much of a good thing” often comes to mind. Whether I'm viewing images from other photographers or in the process of conceptualizing, planning, making and later processing my own image.

 

Such was the case when I was selecting an image for the most recent 'Photo of the Week' blog post. I mentioned there that I was still working through images from the first day of shooting on a 4/5 day late fall trip to the eastern shore of Lake Superior. Reviewing captures from the last location of that day, I had many to go through, as I had chosen a location and set up one camera on a tripod for a particular wide angle composition, and then made frequent exposures as the sun dipped lower and lower on the horizon. My objective was to catch a moment where the sun was revealed through the distant clouds. Using a small aperture, I could create a sunburst to catch the viewer's attention. Actually, I not only made frequent exposures, but had set the camera to capture brackets of 3 exposures and process an in camera HDR (cringe), but I wanted to get an idea of blended final results to apply exposure compensation as desired. Add to that, I was adjusting lens aperture between f/11 and f/22 for intensity of 'sunburst effect' and therein lies the thought of “too much of a good thing”.

 

It was not the number of frames I captured (which was considerable), or the number of variations in exposure and aperture, but the result itself ...

 

' superior sunburst '

... though I like the additional light spilling on the foreground in this version, I find the 'sunburst to be a bit much. Viewer opinions will vary and that, as always, is well and good. Ultimately the decision lies with the creator which will be seen, and I chose a less dramatic, my preferred version as Photo of the Week, but this version has some allure as well.

 

"Too much of a good thing" and "less is more" idioms can be applied to may aspects of photography and the final image. Again, the opinions of viewers will vary. They will either enjoy, like, comment or not. Which leads me to thinking about reacting to the creations of others in the context presented here. I find myself more and more ignoring images that are "overcooked" and in particular avoiding anything AI generated  ...   and that sounds like a topic for a future rant ;-)

 

DJE