Give Them Your Best Shot (Patreon)

Remember when you used to get your news from the morning newspaper, or your leisure entertainment from a magazine? Now your news comes from the Internet and many of us flip through dozens of Instagram reels on our devices during our leisure moments.

Over 25 years ago, when I was a magazine photographer, I used to travel every year to New York City to show my portfolio to photo editors. It was how one got photo assignments in those days, especially from new editors that didn't know your work.

I've also been a photo editor, and I know how busy they are. If you're lucky, you get three minutes with them, and they shuffle through your portfolio in about 30 seconds! It can be very disheartening, watching them pass through your images so quickly, with hardly a pause for the really great shots — or at least the images that you put so much effort into.

And, that's the problem: We are too close and too attached to our own images that we often fail to view them objectively and see them as other do. Take for instance the above title image. I love this image, and I'm very connected to it. Not only because it took a lot of planning and hard work to create, but it has become a pivotal image, defining my change towards more subtle Low Level Lighting (mixed with twilight and starlight blending).

As you probably know, for the past year I had planned to use a vertical version of that image for the ebook cover of my new, version 2.0 update. Then, I remember how I had often prepared 25+ years ago for those portfolio visits to the NYC photo editors. Instead of showing what I thought were my 10 best shots, I removed myself from the emotional equation: I showed about 40 images to my local photo editor and art director friends, and let them narrow down my portfolio to the top 10 images to take to NYC.

That's why YOU were asked a few days ago to help me pick the best cover from these five choices. Number 3 had been MY choice, but it was the wrong choice because I was too emotionally attached to it. In fact, YOU scored it the lowest of the five!

So, which image was the winner? It was a virtual tie between number 4 and 5. To determine the winner, I ran just those two images against each other in two additional polls. One of the two was a clear winner (at least 2 to 1) over the other. Using the right image could make a significant difference in book sales, as a book is often judged by its cover.

So which of those two images will be on the cover? If I can keep on schedule, you'll find out in about three to four weeks (about March 31). Wish me luck!

And, thanks for all your feedback!