Maturity

Zion National Park
Springdale, UT

My friend Harry Sandler and I were discussing this morning how useful it is to revisit images over time. We both know that our skill palette changes and therefore gain different tools to interpret and render images. In essence, you not only develop acumen but also artistic maturity and confidence.

While everyone who has a camera can take a snapshot not everyone can turn a photograph into a meaningful living image. This requires time, skill, passion, and attention to details. As photographers, we know that some images will never win awards. However each image affords us an opportunity to sharpen, renew, and expand our skills. We draw from our maturity and experiences.

There are parallels that we can draw from in life. We live in a society that discounts the value of maturity. Like old buildings, we demolish them to make way for the new. If the Coliseum was in existence today, we would implode it simply because it is old. This lack of vision lacks perspective.

All of us should consider revisiting images and thought. In the context of time and experience, how would you do things differently? What have you learned? Would you make the same mistakes or would you be able to enhance the same situation today? Don't discount maturity.

By the way, although neither of us realized this today, both Harry and I, worked on images from Zion National Park that we took several years ago.