The Revisit

I’ve been working through my photo archives while I visit Tanya and family in Australia. I haven’t really much in terms of photography since I left China in 2020. I knew that circumstances weren’t conducive to photo work. However, I still felt guilty for not snapping out of my creative slump. I still do. There would be moments here or there when I’d feel that creative urge but it would quickly fade into the back of my mind.

I tell myself that when I get like this, I can’t force myself out of this. I try to remind myself of the few other times this has happened and that “this too shall pass.” Some days that helps. I tell myself that all I can do is the things I know are good for me and allow myself to recover. I also tell myself other explicit things that I’ll not repeat. I know the recovery is in process and I do feel things shifting from the darkness.

Which is why I’m working on photos. Editing is one of those things that I enjoy doing that is also good for me. I often like to revisit old photos with new editing techniques to see how I have changed in how I edit. Revisiting these photos does hurt this time though. The knowledge that it’s unlikely that I’ll ever return. Though that is is part of the healing too. Saying good bye. Maybe that’s what I’m doing or avoiding: saying farewell to a place I lived for 26 years.

First edit

I had edited this photo before but I was never satisfied with it. I had been experimenting with crunching my shadows with the curves tool to create a matte look while also bringing in some color to those shadows. With some images I really liked the look, but never with this photo.

So when Lightroom Classic came out with the new masking tool, I decided to test it out. However, I tested it out on a different photo. I had spent hours getting masking this photo in Photoshop to get the sky right. I was also working with multiple exposures to get the pilgrim and sky properly exposed. With the new masking tool, I was able to do a better job in a few minutes. Gotta love technology. Of course, then one of those slumps hit me and I avoided my photography for a few months.

Lightroom Classic masks vs Photoshop masks

So with this photo, I used multiple layers to mask the sky, the monk by himself, the background and then brushed in some noise reduction.

Lightroom mask overlays for my edit

I also experimented with a few different crops before I settled on the final crop. I thought that the monk’s smile was getting lost in the wide shot but when I cropped in close, I felt like it looked too much like a bad composite. So I decided the crop needed the plateau’s edge to give some sense of depth.

A bit about this photo. I took this on my last trip to Northern Tibet at Yarchen Gar. Andy (my guide) had told me when we came here that he probably couldn’t get me in again so “take as many photos as you want.” I had come to Yarchen the year before and loved taking photos of the pilgrims. Andy had told me on that trip that this was one of the top three pilgrimage locations for Tibetan Buddhists. He also told me it was fine to take their photos if they agreed to it. He also liked the idea that I’d send them their photos on WeChat after I had edited them.

This photo was snapped as I was about to leave. It had rained the past few days and I hadn’t been able to get many photos of pilgrims due to it. I’m really glad that I waited long enough to get a few photos of pilgrims before leaving.

I’m still blessed by the kindness of these pilgrims to allow me to take their photos. I was never refused when I asked and sometimes I’d get tracked down on the plateau so that a pilgrim could get their photo taken. This aspect of my photography is one of my favorites. I love being able to connect to people with my photos. So, thank you for reading this far. I hope that you are recovering in your own way in the midst of this recovering world.