Editing the Baker's Dozen

I now have about 300 submissions for the Baker's Dozen, so it's off to work on that.

Here's my process:

• First I search for "BDMuseum" in Mail, which brings up all the submissions.
• I've looked at most already when they came in, but I'll go through them again slowly and look again.
• After waiting at least a few hours and maybe till tomorrow, I'll go through and flag all the ones I think are prospects. With that many submissions, there will probably be 30–60 that I'll flag.
• Then I'll go through the flagged ones again. At this point the pictures are already familiar to me, so I'm looking for which ones seem to have "legs," staying power. I'll be pretty aware of which ones I like more than when I first saw them, and which ones less.
• Then I'll pick the ones I think have to be included no matter what the final set looks like...the "shoo-ins," to use an old expression. I might have to choose between repeated subjects. For instance, in this batch I got a number of pictures of museumgoers sleeping or resting, at least three of which I already know I like, and a number of "abstracts" of architectural details. I probably wouldn't include more than one of each in the final set (if that).
• At that point I'll have a nucleus, so the task becomes to fill in around the main picks to make a coherent, balanced set and a pleasing sequence. I can't tell you how I do this or what I look for; it's mainly done by "feel" you might say. Does anything look out of place? Do two pictures have echoes of each other and need some space between them in the sequence? This is the stage that I'll also check for unintended related elements...for example, do multiple pictures feature strollers, or one particular dominant color? I might choose to mitigate that, but maybe not. On the flip side, there may be something I need to balance out some choices I've already made. One thing I don't consider is the sex of the photographer or where they come from. If three pictures in a row are by women or there turn out to be four pictures by photographers from Italy, that won't bother me. I also don't play favorites with readers who comment a lot, or who I've met, or who might be friends. Well, friends might have a little higher bar than the rest of you. Otherwise it's a pretty level playing field.
• In sequencing I like to start and finish strong, with a strong picture in the middle. But that's not written in stone; maybe there could be some other path, like distant views moving slowly to intimate ones. The pictures sort of tell you what sort of sequence they need. Also, it's not absolutely critical, so there's no sense getting crazy about it. Sometimes one ordering works as well as another.
• Once I have a pretty good fix on the choices and the sequence, I'll review what I have for written material and consider how to present it. For example, in the "Yellow" portfolio I wanted all the pictures close to each other, so I put the written material at the end.

How long will this all take? Well, until I'm satisfied with it—until I feel like I've made the most enjoyable post I can out of the material I have to work with. If that takes four hours total or fourteen, I don't really care. Nobody cares how hard you worked. :-)

Have a nice weekend!

Mike
(Thanks to everyone who submitted)

Original contents copyright 2019 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

(Not) everything must fade away

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Comments

[Ray Maines]

Oh dear! You just said "I can't tell you how I do this or what I look for..." Andrew Molitor at Photos And Stuff is going to eat you up.

[Maggie Osterberg]

OK, admit it, how many of us are sorting through Mike's tea leaves, like investment bankers reading a speech by the Chairperson of the Federal Reserve?

[Anders Holt]

Ops, did not manage to send you an image from the last day (night) of our old national museum. With a lot of Munch and very nature nationalistisc 1880-about paintings, among them this https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C2%ABVinternatt_i_Rondane%C2%BB . It closed for good, a sad day actually. We went out into the night at 21:00, and at 21:01 the doors closed for the last time.

And as far as I can remember my picture was very good. :-)

But then again, one more picture less to digest. :-)

Thank you Mike for your so nice blog!

Anders Holt from Norway.