Fewer Photos And Closer

Yawn. This will be a fairly perfunctory post. I won’t even take the time to make sure ‘perfunctory’ is the correct word. I’m tired, but I got the next sweep of photos passed through. This is a fine enough place to chronicle that “From over 1,300 photos down to about 200, the second sort of photos from my Twelve Months at Hurricane Ridge photo essay was completed today, February 24, 2026.” The third sort took that down to about 9 photos per month. 9X12 = 108. From over 1,300 to ~200 to ~100, but not down to 48 (4X12). Getting closer, but not done yet.

I’m frequently asked why I don’t start downsizing at the end of each photo session. I don’t because I don’t know what stories I’m going to tell. Twelve Months at Hurricane Ridge seems obvious. Every month there’d be another panorama, but then what else? Snow, obviously. Flowers, naturally, though not every month. Wildlife only when it showed up. 

And then there are natural abstracts, which I find intriguing. A shadow crossing a snowfield. An icicle forming one month, then, a few months later, melting. Folds in the land that are suggestive of human forms, or are totally abstract. A few documentary-style images that chronicle snow-depth or when the first grass shows through.

I didn’t expect to share photos where people are watching wildlife. Any wildlife photo includes wildlife watching people. Wildlife is cautious, mostly.

This is also when I’m making those tougher decisions about what to throw out, or at least set aside from this book project. For previous books, I’ve found that including very photogenic images begins to lose the concept of a twelve month series. Keep it simple. Don’t overwhelm the audience. Don’t fall into the trap of endless postcard photos. 

Some day I may run an exhibit of the almost-rans, but that would come at a time when I am not compiling a Twelve Month study. That’s years away. Sufficient interest could also make me change, but I’m busy enough. Maybe after I’ve finished the third book in my sci-fi trilogy and my tall ship screenplay. So much to do.

Until then, thanks for your patience, and I hope someone gets a better appreciation for my Twelve Month studies. More to come.