Choice

I took quite a few pictures today despite the rain and as usual had an idea of what my picture of the day might be, but I ended up with something quite different.

Which leads me to the question:

"What is choice?"

When the journalist Alan Coren died recently his daughter Victoria wrote in her column that her father had advising her "Don't write the first thing that comes into your head, everyone has thought of that, nor the second thing. Write down the third thing because that is your original thought".

I wondered whether that was true of photography. Is your last picture, the one you've agonised over, always the best?

I had this conversation with Wayne Ford, who probably knows more about photography than anyone I know. He just said "No" (a man of few words).

I didn't think about it again until today. My first picture of the day was this one, taken on Primrose Hill. I didn't go out with the intention of taking this shot it just appeared. The rain fell from the sky and stopped under the trees, leaving a glassy puddle. The shape was fantastic. It was definitely the best of the day.

So the answer to the question of choice (or editing) is, keep and open mind and choose the picture that speaks to you.