I completed my post-processing on this photo. All the lines, patterns and lighting were now as I wanted them to be. That made me happy. The original photo was an ugly duckling for me. When I had composed the image in my mind, it was exactly the way you see in the photo above. And I captured it too that way on my camera, so I thought, except for one small difference.
The image that the camera captured had an intruder in it. A pair of feet, my own feet !!
I noticed this intrusion only later while downloading the images on my computer. By that time the cake was gone, the light was different, and the mood was altogether different. I was very upset with myself. There was no way I could have re-captured the image the way I had imagined. I cursed and cursed myself. How could I miss such an obvious mistake in the composition?
Fortunately the modern day digital image editors came to my help. I successfully stamped-out the intruder from the image. (Stamping is a technique to digitally alter/erase some parts of image).
And presto! The image was ready for display exactly the way I wanted it to be.
But I could not resist looking back at the original one again and again. And, actually, I started liking it more than the altered one, all because of the intrusion that made it distinct. The original was not perfect, er, not as I wanted it to be. But it had a uniqueness to it. That pair of feet gave it a human touch, and its own identity !
I prefer now the original with the pair of feet in it over the altered one.
In life, reality never matches to what we plan. Life quietly introduces such intrusions into our plans. That takes away our happiness. Why not take the intrusions in our stride and make them also part of our plan? Who knows, they may turn out to be the ones that will make our life unique.
Let’s take life in our stride and then happiness is always ours.
Hi Shrirang… enjoyed reading your blog!! Maybe I will take a cue from you and start mine sometime 🙂