From The Outhouse To The Penthouse

Tradd Street, Charleston, SC  -  2012

(Click on photo to enlarge.)

Back when the New Orleans Saints were perennial losers, the late radio broadcaster Wayne Mack often used the expression "from the penthouse to the outhouse" to describe the way a coach's popularity could plummet during another losing season. I've used the reverse of that expression to describe the fortunes of this photo that came close to experiencing the delete key, but now may be made into a print to hang on my wall.

Although I have a 1TB hard drive on my computer, and an additional 2 TB on an external hard drive, I still feel the need to keep the ever-bulging photo files under control by ruthlessly editing out the photos that really aren't that good. I make of bunch of those, you just never see them. One mistake many new photographers make is showing every photo they take. I've seen some aspiring portrait photographers show their customer 8-10 shots of the same pose! Big mistake. Only show the best of the 10, and delete the inferior shots. If you can't decide which one is the best, how can you expect anyone else to stay interested? Only show your best photos.

Anyway, in going through another culling session to clear space on the hard drive, the above photo almost got the ax. It was a little over exposed, and didn't have a strong center of interest. (Why didn't I realize that when I shot it?) Still, there was something interesting about it to me, so I decided to see what I could do in the digital darkroom to save it. I came up with this version. It touched off good memories of an enjoyable trip with my wife last spring. I like it so much that I think I'll have a print made to display in my home, something that happens to only a very small percentage of my photos.