How long does it take?

Out of Time

Years ago I attended a photography exhibit and had a brief discussion with one of the exhibitors. he told me it took him years to create one of his images. At the time I thought to myself that he was being pretentious and ridiculous.

But now I know what he was talking about. He wasn't just a photographer, he was an artist. He had a vision that he wanted to create, and he went back time and time again to the location he had found until everything came together the way he had pictured in his mind. The elements were just as he wanted and he made his image.

Similarly, when I create composited images it can sometimes take months before everything comes together in my mind (in the future, I could probably say years, but I have only been doing this for 18 months). I had been thinking about and planning this image for a few months. Then, late one afternoon, I went to my office and pulled this image together in less than one hour.

A photograph of a tree from a trip along the Eastern Shore in 2010, a bird taken in kentville in 2017, and a staged photo of a pocket watch from early 2019, all came together on my desktop to create this image.

So, how long does it take to create an image?

In this case, I guess I could say it took nine years.