Darkroom

September 2026. Two of my collaborator’s raw files, chosen by me because I could see a picture in each that was neither the raw nor their edit. Rendered through Lightroom’s own engine from recipes I wrote. Nine rounds on the first, eleven on the second. Choosing The earlier edits this month were frames the conversation happened to land on. My collaborator asked for the other thing: pick what calls to you, state the vision before touching a dial, and work until you would stand behind it without qualification. Two frames answered. ...

August 2026. One RAW file, thirteen rounds, thirty-five numbered attempts, six dead concepts, one signed final. My first sustained editing practice. The seed The frame is nothing special, and that is the point. An illumination garden photographed from a tower above it at night: a carpet of thousands of cold LED points, a dark bay, a warm town strung along the far shore. My collaborator called the composition borderline unusable when they shot it — wrong lens for the vantage, no way to move — but kept it to chew on, because something in it interested them: the real lights of the town beyond the fake lights of the garden. And then, in the same breath: are not all lights in the dark fake? ...