Trusting Ourselves Is Gold


I take a lot of photos. A LOT. 


Right now I have 8,395 on my hard drive (or in the cloud; I really don’t understand what’s where, but it’s at least all backed up). I’ve taken those since October 2020, when I got my first “real” camera (i.e., a camera that was not my iPhone). 


And those 8,395 don’t include the duds that I’ve deleted in the last 3.5 years (I’ve likely put thousands of photos into the trash), or photos I’ve taken on my iPhone (sometimes that’s all I have on me, so it will do in a pinch).


Because I take so many, I often forget about some of them, including some good ones. That includes several that I worked on and posted recently, which I took back in early November of last year. I went to MacMillan Pier in Provincetown Harbor to catch the sunrise, and despite some clouds (or maybe thanks to some clouds) the sky didn’t disappoint.


In fact, it was almost too good to be true. For about 25 minutes, the entire harbor and town were cast in a warm golden light that felt otherworldly. I spent those minutes quickly snapping away at the fishing boats in the harbor, the buildings on the piers, and the town skyline (especially the Pilgrim Monument and the Provincetown Library–both are stunning in any light, but since they both face east-ish they really sparkle in the mornings). 


Even after this great golden glow, the light was still nice, so I biked into the East End and took some shots there, too. Overall it was a 37-minute shoot, and I knew I got some stunners even before looking at them on my laptop.


But when I did sit down and import them, I was shocked by just how bright and golden the lighting was on most of them. I thought most people would think I heavily edited them to give them the tints and hues that I was seeing on my screen (which matched what I saw in-person that morning).


So I kind of blocked them out of my memory and didn’t do anything with them. 


Fast forward to last month, when I was doing some file clean-up and I came across that group of photos. And I realized how much I liked them, so I decided to post them. I dialed down the saturation in a few because they looked almost absurd, but otherwise they’re as-shot. 


And they’re all right here. I hope you enjoy them. 


For me, this exercise was a good reminder to trust my instincts (at the time I was shooting, I knew the light was magical) and to be patient with my work. I don’t always need to rush out to get more material–I have more than enough of what I need if I just slow down and look.