"Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savour: so doth a little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honour" (Ecclesiastes 10:1).

In a past blog post, I said I'd share more photos from our short stop in Sedona, Arizona. Well, here they are, plus a fascinating tidbit behind great photos that I discovered while as I was editing them.

I didn't know my way around Sedona very well. But after doing some online scouting, I was convinced that Bell Rock was the place I wanted to go for my only sunset in the area.

Naturally, I followed Google Maps to the "Bell Rock Pathway Trailhead Parking Lot."

But when we got there, I didn't see any Bell Rock.

There were some fantastic rock formations nearby, but it looked like it might be a bit of a hike to reach Bell Rock from this spot. So before unloading Mordecai and the stroller, I told Julianna I'd scout the place out to make sure we should stay here for our evening photography excursion.

Right out of the gate, the view was tremendous. A towering Courthouse Butte dominated the scene.

A little further down the trail, though, things started to make more sense. This trail turned to make it's way up to the southern side of Bell Rock, finally visible in the distance.

But it would be a long walk for the three of us. And I didn't know how long the trail would continue to be stroller friendly. We would probably have to leave the stroller behind and just carry Mordecai most of the way.

And I think that's when I checked Google Maps again. There was a second parking lot on the north side of Bell Rock. It looked a whole lot closer, wouldn't require nearly as long a walk, and would probably offer more varied views.

Plus the rock formations to the west were high enough to put this side of Bell Rock into shadow quite early. Golden hour was just starting, and the sun with its golden light was already disappearing here. I turned around and headed back to the car to continue our adventure on the northern side of the rock.

Of course, I kept taking pictures along the way as things caught my attention. The last rays of sunlight turned an otherwise blank wall of rock into something more artistic. Can you detect what I did in post-processing to clean up the shot a bit?

And now the other side of the trail was catching my eye. Before, with the sunlight on the landscape, everything looked so busy. But now? The gently patterned foreground no longer competed with the dramatic rock formation in the background. A simplified scene in a chaotic environment. And again, I removed a few small distractions in post, plus tightened the crop to keep the horizon clean at the edges.

The trail on the north side of Bell Rock was indeed a whole lot better for our little crew! And even though I didn't have much time to shoot, I sure did take a lot of photos! There were so many interesting things to include in the foreground. And the views were beautiful all around us, allowing for great photos in any direction as the light changed from golden hour, to sunset, to twilight.

Because it was such an amazing location, I really didn't have to do much in post to prepare the photos for public viewing. But interestingly, I noticed there was one thing I found myself doing with just about every photo I took: removing little things that distracted the eye.

Nothing really big. Nothing time-consuming. Nothing that altered the mood or integrity of the location. Just little things. Things that perhaps most people wouldn't notice, but things that I think elevate a photo from amazing to perfect.

For instance. The following photo just needed a little cropping, and some cloning in the bottom right corner.

In this photo, it's obvious what I cropped out. The bright rocks to the left of the tree was distracting my eye from the rocks I want them to feast on to the right of the tree.

In this shot, even though you can't technically see the horizon, I felt that the fact that it appeared unlevel was a distraction.

The "distraction" in the following shot was what I felt to be a proportional imbalance between the subjects (the rock and tree) and the foreground rocks, which cropping solved.

And in this final shot below, I did hardly anything in post-processing to remove distractions. However, in-camera, I distinctly remember trying to hide the unsightly, scraggly pine tree on the left side of the photo by putting as much of it as I could it in front of the distant hill side. If I had been any lower, those branches would have come up into the sky more, drawing attention to themselves and breaking the clean, sweeping curve that the eye follows on it's way to the main subject.

The main thing I was doing with these photos was removing little distractions. Great photos depend on the small stuff.

And perhaps you're seeing where I'm going by now? 🙂

Solomon used a peculiar metaphor, dead flies in perfume, to illustrate an important truth. "Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savour: so doth a little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honour."

In the world of photography, we see how the same truth is illustrated only with a different metaphor. Little distractions in our photos are like the dead flies. Both represent negligence. Even though they are small and may be considered harmless, eye-catching distractions left in a completed work of art prevent a photograph from truly reaching it's full potential of beauty. So, a little folly, the choice to do something foolish, especially when it seems like it can be easily excused, can tarnish the hard-earned reputation of someone who is esteemed as a person of character, integrity, and moral soundness.

As we spend time regularly editing our photos to make them as beautiful as they can be, removing distractions and cropping to perfection, let us remember the eternal value of remaining vigilant against small, moral compromises, careless words spoken in haste, selfish acts that disregard the needs of others, or impure thoughts that lead to actions that bring dishonor to the name of Christ. May the beauty of Christ's work in us shine through without distraction!