In my Lightroom library, there is a collection dedicated to potentially promising images that are 90% finished but still aren’t quite there yet. Whatever it is that they are lacking is is quite elusive. I keep looking at these photos regularly, but I can’t quite put my finger on what they need more often than not. These images are bound for a process that I call slow cooking.
Some of these images remain in this collection for weeks or months; others have been sitting there for years. I don’t know why it happens, but now and again, I have the right idea to make the decisive changes that make these images ready for release. Very often, the necessary changes are only very subtle. And almost always, in hindsight, they appear so simple and evident that I cannot tell why I didn’t have this idea earlier.
Below, you will find a collection of animal portraits that have been “slow cookers” for years now and that I finished recently, plus one brand new low-hanging fruit that I was able to get right pretty quickly.
Enjoy!