Abandoned by TedGore

So, I'm doing a workshop. And I offer some other stuff. "An artist never really finishes his work, he merely abandons it." - Paul Valery I've been watching through all the behind the scenes documentaries on the Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug Extended Edition recently, in eager anticipation of the third installment, and one of the cast members said this quote at one point. It stuck with me. I'm hesitant to call myself an artist because I think the term is sometimes used as a badge of honor, undeservingly, but, when I was processing this shot, there was not a more true statement for what I was going through. I often find myself at a point where I agonize over minor details that, most likely, no one else would notice, but with this shot, when I say agonize, I mean AGONIZE. Ugh. I apologize to those I whined incessantly to about it. I'm still only mildly satisfied, but I know that just abandoning it, and putting it out for all to see will give me some sense of closure. I know, so dramatic right... it's a freaking PICTURE. Anyway, if you're curious, it's a shot of a pretty awesome looking sea stack on Rialto Beach on the Olympic Coast in Washington. While visiting, I found myself at this spot watching how the water receded over the sand and rocks, creating these really interesting lines. Well, I did not literally see lines... what I saw was the pieces of foam going up and down the beach, but I knew, that with a long exposure, they would most likely look interesting. And they did! The moon was in a good spot, and the clouds were forming some radiating lines that I thought would make a pretty cool shot. I chose to go vertical pano style because a more conventional vertical ratio caused the singular, tall, thin stack to look too insignificant. The processing was really difficult. Admittadly, more than it should have been. The shot was very blue, and with blue comes variants of blue, magenta blues, cyan blues... and with those variations, comes inconsistency, in with inconsistency comes my insanity. Then try to balance warm highlights on top of those blues. NUCLEAR WARFARE. I hope I got it to work. I did. I mean I think I did. Right? via 500px http://ift.tt/16duOov