• Newsletter
  • Free Ebooks
  • Portfolio: Sarah
  • Portfolio: Ron
  • Prints & Licensing
  • Store
  • Blog
  • Classes + Workshops
  • About
  • Contact
Menu

Sarah Marino & Ron Coscorrosa Photography

Street Address
City, State, Zip
Phone Number
Nature Photography by Sarah Marino & Ron Coscorrosa

Your Custom Text Here

Sarah Marino & Ron Coscorrosa Photography

  • Newsletter
  • Free Ebooks
  • Photos
    • Portfolio: Sarah
    • Portfolio: Ron
    • Prints & Licensing
  • Store
  • Blog
  • Classes + Workshops
  • About
  • Contact

Embracing the Photo Backlog

October 22, 2013 Ron Coscorrosa
Fresh Snowfall in Zion Canyon
Fresh Snowfall in Zion Canyon

A little over two years ago, a few months after my temporary (but currently active) retirement, two things happened:

  1. I started taking many more photos (as a direct consequence of traveling more and having more time to dedicate to photography).
  2. I spent more time processing each photo.

I made the deliberate philosophical change that remains active to this day: to produce less, but better, work.

I had a tremendous opportunity in front of me, to be able to spend my time where and when I wanted to, and I decided to use it to improve my photography. That meant I had to slow down. My days of breezily processing an entire trip the day after returning were over.

This philosophical change also meant tossing the majority of photos that I had previously processed (I wasn't happy with most of them and there were far too many). They would exist as RAW files ready to be revisited in the future.

Thus, my photo backlog grew on both ends: older photos that needed to be reprocessed, and newly taken photos that had never been processed.

The inevitable consequence of this decision meant that my backlog (which was at zero when I decided to quit my job) would grow faster than my ability to work through it. It soon became apparent that there would be no way for me to get through my backlog in any reasonable time, and now, a few years later, it has become apparent that I will never get through it with any amount of time.

And that's just fine.

There are no prizes awarded for having an empty backlog.

Don't get the wrong idea. It is still important to produce quality and consistent work on a regular basis. A photographer must, after all, produce photos. Further, producing photos is a critical part of the feedback loop and necessary to improve over time.

But it's still OK to have a backlog, in fact, I think there are many benefits to waiting before processing (or choosing to process) a given photo. By divorcing yourself from the emotional experience of capturing the image you are able to evaluate it on more objective terms. You can decide if the photo communicates what you want to communicate independent of how you felt when capturing it. You can be honest with yourself and know that the tremendous amount of work that went into capturing the photo doesn't mean the photo is any good. This postponed evaluation works in both directions, some photos you thought were great at the time of capture may end up not being good and some that you were ambivalent about (such as the Zion winter photo above) will rise to the top, as your personal aesthetic preferences and style will change. It's also likely (or it should be!) that your standards will increase over time, and photos that may have made the cut before will fall short now.

I have visited Yosemite on three separate occasions, and yet have zero Yosemite photos on my website. I spent a week in the Smokies and another week in the Columbia River Gorge this spring and have yet to process a single photo from either trip. In the Yosemite case, I know there are several worthy photos, and in fact I had processed some before but threw them out and I haven't felt inspired to reprocess them. For the Smokies and the Gorge, none of the photos immediately jumped out to me, so, again, I decided to postpone processing them until I have more distance. The same can be said for many other locations. I have absolutely no feelings of guilt from this huge backlog nor do I feel the need to immediately share a photo from every place I visit.

I still have been processing photos (most of the last few months have been dedicated to Iceland, Death Valley, and Colorado and related projects), but all of that work has only slightly reduced my backlog. I no longer care nor expect to get through it all, or even a majority of it. My only goal is to be happy with that with the photos that I do process as ultimately that's all that matters to me.

← Photographing the Awe-Inspiring Aurora Borealis in Iceland Desert Paradise: Photographing Death Valley National Park →

About Us

This website features the photography of Sarah Marino and Ron Coscorrosa. You can find out more about our other offerings through these links:

  • Our free newsletter

  • Educational photography ebooks and tutorials

  • Sarah on Instagram and YouTube

  • Ron on Instagram



Ebooks and Video Tutorials

Visit our ebook and video tutorial store

 

FEATURED Posts

Featured
Sarah-Marino-Central-California-Coast-19.jpg
Sarah Marino
Seaside Wandering: Photos from the California Coast
Sarah Marino
Sarah Marino
Ron-Coscorrosa-2025-Death-Valley-1440px.jpg
Ron Coscorrosa
Monochromatic Wasteland: Ron's Photos from Death Valley
Ron Coscorrosa
Ron Coscorrosa
Sarah-Marino-Rocky-Mountain-National-Park-Winter-17.jpg
Sarah Marino
Milestones: Winter in Rocky Mountain National Park
Sarah Marino
Sarah Marino
Sarah-Marino-Backyard-Ice-Abstracts-1440px-14.jpg
Sarah Marino
Revisiting Backyard Ice Abstracts
Sarah Marino
Sarah Marino
Sarah-Marino-Color-Nature-Photos-2024-12.jpg
Sarah Marino
2024 in Review #3 - Color Nature Photos
Sarah Marino
Sarah Marino
Sarah-Marino-Plants-2024-20.jpg
Sarah Marino
2024 in Review #2: Portraits of Plants
Sarah Marino
Sarah Marino

SUPPORT THIS BLOG

Generally, our goal is to offer helpful resources without constant sales pitches, sponsorships, or advertisements. If you get something useful from this blog, or would just like to support our photography and teaching endeavors, you can donate through the button here. We are very grateful for donations and all of the other types of support our community offers for our photography. Thank You!

Donate

SEARCH BLOG POSTS

Blog CATEGORIES

  • Bird Photography (1)
  • Featured Article (1)
  • Plant Photography (1)
  • Wildlife Photography (1)
  • Video Course (2)
  • Women in Photography (2)
  • Advocacy (3)
  • Iceland (3)
  • Photo Education (3)
  • Gear Review (4)
  • Interviews (4)
  • Photography Location Tips (4)
  • Winter Photography (4)
  • Autumn Photography (5)
  • Conservation (5)
  • Recommended Reading (6)
  • Monthly Update (7)
  • Creativity (8)
  • Field Practices (9)
  • Travel Journal (11)
  • Black & White Photography (12)
  • Favorite Images (13)
  • Recent Photos (13)
  • E-Books (14)
  • Photography Tips (17)
  • Small Scenes (19)
  • Thoughts on Photography (23)
  • Nature Photography (29)
  • Landscape Photography (40)

BLOG POSTS BY AUTHOR

  • Ron Coscorrosa (44)
  • Sarah Marino (93)
 

RECEnt INSTAGRAM photos

Autumn! Like most nature photographers, I have been happy to see hints of fall all around me over the last week or so. Here is a small selection of intimate landscapes and small scenes from Colorado last year.
A beautiful, lush field of lupine wildflowers outside of Crested Butte, Colorado. I'm so looking forward to teaching two summer wildflower workshops in this area with the Crested Butte Wildflower Festival next summer (link to more info in my bio). 🌺
I went to Alaska during peak fall colors and did as I always do: pointed my camera at mundane but beautiful things on the ground. I wrote about this trip for the most recent issue of Elements Magazine and covered the experience of traveling in Alaska
While traveling to Oklahoma for the total solar eclipse, we stopped at the Quivira National Wildlife Refuge in Kansas. In addition to seeing many birds, we also stumbled upon a grove of trees covered in beautiful orange, yellow, and blue-gray lichen.
This photo is from a wild weather day in Death Valley National Park and it is also the subject of my brand-new Bold Black + White video course. I created this course for Learn Nature Photography, which is a new collaboration with six insightful, insp
Some lovely sun beams in Death Valley, shining through very heavy storm clouds to illuminate the Panamint Mountains. I just shared a new blog post, my January month in review. I talk about our recent trip to Death Valley, why we keep revisiting the p
Backyard ice. Fancy patterns. ❄️
🥶 Seems like a good day to share a few favorite ice photos from Zion National Park.
I instantly adore every aquatic plant I’ve had the pleasure of meeting, including these from Mount Rainier National Park in autumn.
A small collection of newly processed photos from 2023, which was a good year overall. I wrote a longer wrap-up on our website, and you can find a link to it in my profile. Happy new year!
I’m writing an article about how centered compositions are PERFECTLY FINE in some situations, despite what the rules-oriented composition police might say. In looking for photos to go along with that article, I came upon this photo and it broug
Mountains made of water in Death Valley National Park.
 
 

Copyright © 2008-2024 - Nature Photo Guides, LLC | All Rights reserved | Terms & Conditions