Multiple Exposure Flowers

Constructing the images for my multiple exposure flower series can be both incredibly satisfying and incredibly frustrating. I am trying to assemble a small portfolio of perhaps a dozen of them.

About a week ago I shot three sets of them. I could tell that there was something good to be had within the first series. But I worked on it a good hour or two a day for about a week and I knew that I still hadn’t brought forward its potential. Each day I tried to shift some things around to get it there, moving layers, changing their opacities and blend modes, and cloning bits here and there. But, by the end of the week, I knew this was just going off in the wrong direction and I completely deleted my work. Not the source images, just the final piece. I knew that I would have to start over. And, in order to give that particular piece a rest, I moved on to a completely different flower grouping, knowing I would eventually return to the prior one to give it another try.

And then with this piece, the exact opposite happened. Within an hour I knew I had something, and it only took another two hours or so to get it 98% there (and then a couple more to tweak it). But the point is that I very rapidly knew that I was on the right track. I find it interesting that sometimes work just ‘clicks’ and at other times it can be quite difficult to pull out of an image the potential that you feel it has.

Have you had that same experience? The one where some images just come together rapidly and others you just can’t seem to get right.

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Sunflowers © Howard Grill

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