Married to the Mystery

This morning I began playing with some of the “failed” photographs from my recent trip to the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. What can I see in my so-called failed images that sparks my imagination?

Can I discover something I haven’t seen before? What is hiding in the depths of these images? I become

Married to the Mystery

I begin with a photograph of a purple coneflower in which I cut off the top of the flower. And it immediately captures my imagination. Look at the curving stem of grass behind it. And the sharper pointed blade of something in the foreground. I find that I enjoy the image just as it is. But then I decide to play with combining it with another “failed” image…

I’m not sure what I was aiming at in this one but all I got was blur and a single white blossom in the lower right corner. I wonder what this would look like layered with the purple cone flower above? Hmmm… I think I like it.

If I knew where the good songs came from, I’d go there more often. It’s a mysterious condition. It’s much like the life of a Catholic nun. You’re married to a mystery.

   — Leonard Cohen

Now what would happen if I take another “failure”…

I was captivated by the delicate flower stems but really didn’t like the gravel background behind them. But when I layer the image into the coneflower image…

And mask out all but the flowers and stems in the flower petals, I get this. I think I like it.

[Writing] begins with an appetite to discover my self-respect. To redeem the day. So the day does not go down in debt. It begins with that kind of appetite.

   — Leonard Cohen

Now for another failed image…

I was hoping to get the feel of the prairie flowers in bloom here but the image just didn’t work for me. But I wonder what would happen if I layer this image over top of it…

And I get this which I really like…

These are a few of the experiments that I tried that I liked well enough to keep. I made countless other attempts which I never bothered to save. For every image that I like I made at least 10 attempts that I didn’t like.

Luckily, for me, this process is play and I almost never tire of it. How do you play in your creative life?

May you walk in beauty