I read somewhere that an image should marinate for a while.

Not sure what time frame this meant, I let things run along as they do, but recently, I think I have discoverred the true meaning, but also, I realise I may have monumetally stuffed up.

Re-visiting the many Japan files, some almost a decade after they were taken, I have found some of them are better than I remembered, some even blipping on the radar seemingly for the first time.

It looks like two things were at play.

The first is, Capture 1 is definitely treating the mostly EM5 Mk1 files more respectfully, taking them from simple, sometimes gritty and often marginal files to more mature and forgiving ones, on the whole more giving.

The second thing is, sometimes it seems when you are embedded in the process, like taking seven trips to the same place in five years, many images were subconsciously filed into “same as others, ignore for now”, or even worse “won’t ever use it, delete now” categories.

The fact is, my perspective has changed, I am more respectful of my own efforts, better in touch with my “shooting head”, allowing me to recall why I took them, the hopes I had, the ideas I was chasing and the instincts I was following.

I almost needed to see them as a distanced stranger, to be able to re-see them as my own.

Closer me was clearly blinkered.

In the months following the trip, only some images, often the ones I remembered taking then reviewing with excitement were cemented in, the rest were simply part of the wave of information I consciously blocked out. I do not process while I travel, treating the whole thing like shooting film, which has its benefits and it seems, its down side.

There is also the reality that many responded better to Lightroom than others, something that is no longer an issue as C1 treats them all equally. I honestly believe that if C1 was a more main stream and friendlier to use system when the EM5.1 was launched, it may have become a legend in its own time, but LR held it back.

So many garden shots for example, were taken almost out of habit, instinctively, but not with the type of mental commitment I would have applied to landscape images at home. No tripod, a single prime lens and often no time (or timing), combined with a head space that said “lots of gardens, all been done before and not what I am here for”, meant I took them, but gave them little thought.

A phenomenon we have noticed before is something we call “Czech Chrystal” syndrome. Chrystal in the Czech republic is everywhere, is cheap, but is also overwhelming, so it tends to be ignored. You get home and see the prices of even basic Czech chrystal in shops, groan to your self “why didn’t I fill a suit case?”, then return and repeat.

The same is true of Japan. Soo many temples, gardens and beautiful spaces, that they do tend to blur together unless you give each a decent bit of time. If not, the images taken tend to have the odd stand out, but otherwise they do blur, diminishing them. In reality, I would have to travel a long way to see better, even living where I do, so looking at each set discreetly, has revealed a decent if guiltily loose and lazy body of work.

Technically, they are good enough, compositionally many are worthy, so maybe I will be looking at two books, one of temples, gardens and quiet spaces, one of street and people?

The big stuff-up, eluded to above is that it seems that some time in my disorganised early period, when working with a camera became a reality and my amateur habits were found wanting, I may have mercilessly culled my early trip files to make more room.

One trip, which was a lightning week in Tokyo, only had 700 files. I am sure this is not what was taken as I average 200+ a day.

Hope I chose well.

It is not possible to “marinate” your files for years before processing them, but it is possible to revisit them, so I hope you have kept yours on file and are brave enough to take a deep dive into the once known.