more than a month

While I am in Japan I am doing what is called an Independant Study through my school, which means I am getting credit for one class while being here. For the class I send my teacher a number of photos every week along with a journal. This is a direct copy and paste from my thoughts expressed to him in my 'journal' for the week. They seemed to work as a blog for the evening:

After being here over a month, sadly, I'm almost getting used to it. It has been quite a challenge to keep fresh eyes and a fresh perspective on everything. I honestly did not expect myself to get used to being here so quickly, I thought that everything would feel new and unique the entire time. I should have known better. Don't get me wrong, I still find joy in the pictures drawn on signs and can't help but crack a smile at the little old lady/man with decades of life etched into the wrinkles of their face. I just keep trying to challenge myself to find more...maybe I just need to think slightly simpler. I dunno really...but I look forward to finding out this week which it is.

It was actually last week that I had this realization as I was writing on my blog about Japan and I posted a photo of a lady sitting next to the road waiting for her ride home after work. When I took her photo and we exchanged smiles and laughs, did she ever think that within hours of that moment people all over the globe would, if desired, have access to see her face on my blog? Photography is, as you say, truly a priviledge and people must have a certain level of trust to allow their photo to be made. Especially in a country where communication is limited to body language it is so important to be able to portray trust to someone in the 10-15 seconds of interaction while making a photo of them.

I know this is getting long, but I wanted thank you for your advice on editing through piles of photos. It is indeed so hard to be honest with myself as to why I like the photo. Honestly, I am not sure that have fully learned to do it well. What is even harder for me when I'm looking through photos is to forget what others 'would/will' think. When I see an image that I like, the thought always goes through my head of wondering if someone else would like it too, or do I just like it because I made it and I think it's neat? I'd like to say that all that matters is if I like it but other's opinions do matter at some point down the line, sometimes sooner than later.

I guess these would be the questions that I usually ask myself when editing; they seem pretty shallow after actually writing out what goes through my head:

1. Do I like this image? (usually a judgment made rather quickly)
2. Do I like it because of the emotions that go along with it? or is it actually good?
3. Usually at this point I question myself as to whether or not it's a photo that I'm looking forward to showing someone else. I guess this is because what I love so much about photography is the opportunity to share it.

Okay, so that's the end of the 'copy/paste'. I guess i'll just attach a photo and go to bed; Kaduaki and Masako, koto players that are in the video.