You Have To Be Willing To Kill The Little Darlings

So, I just finished 1987 in my great photo preservation adventure.

Up until today, I hadn't really done any kind of editing on these photos. The photos with people in them, I couldn't really cut anybody out now could I?

Plus, I like keeping the original photo intact, for better or worse.

But today, I ran into a bunch of vacation photos. 4x6 vacation photos. 4x6 vacation photos with no people in them. 4x6 vacation photos with no people in them that I was trying to put on 12x12 sheets.

It was time to crop.

Like I said, I normally like to keep the original photo in tact. Photos with people in them and those people are in houses or other environments that years from now could provide the viewer with fun nostalgia or curious mystery need to stay just the way they are no matter how awful the composition or exposure. Plus I like to keep the photographer's original viewpoint. Again, no matter what the aesthetic presentation.

But...faced with no people and a space issue, I practiced what is known as "You have to be willing to kill the little darlings". This is a phrase that my painting professors used. It's meaning is "You have to be willing to be brutal in your critiquing, editing, cropping, correction and even destruction of your art work in order for it to improve." Many artists, myself included, can get too precious with a creation. You create something and, for whatever reason...usually not a good aesthetic reason...you resist changing it to make it better. It's your little darling, your precious. And it typically sucks. But you can't see that cuz it's your little darling.

I changed the blade on my paper cutter, got out my bifocals and went medieval on those photos. Ain't skeer'd.