I added a new photo album to Reckonings today which I'm calling "Keepers." I've been reorganizing and culling my photo files, being sure I've securely backed up those I know I want to keep. A natural outgrowth of that review was to keep a small folder of favorite pictures, and that's "Keepers." I was reviewing pictures taken, for the most part, during the last three or four years. So far I've only posted 18 photos to "Keepers," as I think there's a useful distinction between those I want to tuck away for future work, for family and close friends, and those that may be of some interest to others, readers of Reckonings.
It's a diverse collection--"motley" was the word that first came to mind, but each of those images reminds me of a memorable experience and continues to stir the pot of my intrigue with seeing and responding more clearly and surely to that which quickens the imagination.
There are evocations of home, of my beloved White Mountains of New Hampshire, a month's trek through Provence in 2005, another visit to the F.D.R. Memorial in Washington, and a few precious moments of dawn and dusk spent with snow geese and sandhill cranes at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in southwestern New Mexico. I'll add carefully to "Keepers" over the next weeks, months and years, and perhaps include some annotation to individual photos.
Now it is the summer of 2016, almost a full decade after offering the initial iteration of "Keepers," and I realize I have neglected it. There have been, over the years, many more photos, and my ways of composition and editing have changed a good deal. I think there is more intimacy in my work as photographer, more lingering with the images after their transfer from largely outdoor shots to editing at the computer, and of course recognition and comfortable use of far more sophisticated editing programs including Apple's new Photos, Adobe's more versatile Photoshop Elements, Acorn and Pixelmator. And yes, I think, more keepers to add to this collection.