I have agonized over this photo – “Patient Little Cowgirl” – for days. Not because the photo was difficult to develop, I saw something in the development which I knew was going to draw me a lot of unwarranted heat for taking the shot that way. I was so caught up in getting a shot of the young rider in the far left of the image that I completely forgot to pay attention to the large amount of back lighting coming from the open door on the opposite side of the coliseum.

It doesn’t in any way affect the composition. But the lighting, draws the the attention away from my main subject. It leaves the viewer wandering through the shot until it finally comes to rest on the little girl because she is the sharpest item in the image. I had thought about trying to edit the image by adding content into the bright area so that it is not so dominant. But, it goes against one of the pillars of my style of photography – as little photoshopping as possible.

So, I have decided to accept the image with all it imperfections and release it none the less. Yes, it may not be great but I still like it.