Make Hay While the Sun is Up

Modern, film-free photography benefits from the law of averages - meaning, if you take enough shots, one of them is bound to be good. A fun challenge in that framework...can you transform a throwaway picture to something worth keeping? This photo is a good example of it. I am sure many people who take pictures with their phones forget to wipe the lenses off before they do, and I am no exception. Sometimes.

We were visiting Sister Bay, Wisconsin back in June when I grabbed this shot of a sailboat in the harbor. And, while I would have been quick to toss it out because of smudge on the lens, I decided to give it a go with my trusty Lightroom tweaks to see what I could make out of it. I like the result and now take second looks at my shots before I delete them, since there is probably more potential in them than I realize.