"It's not perfect"

I've recently been working to get into the city at minimum once per week for a long morning walk, both for some street photography and personal mental health.

During last week's city walk, I snapped a picture that genuinely ended up being my favorite from that day. After some mild editing, I dropped it into the "random" Slack channel I use at Kit (where I work). Some of my co-workers have told me they like seeing my shots, and I was excited to share this one.

When sharing the image, I wrote: "I wanted to share this image from my city walk yesterday because it makes me happy. It's not perfect but I just really like it."

My co-worker Haley replied, "What would make it perfect?"

Quite honestly (and somewhat embarassingly), I had no real answer.

What would make it perfect?

My reply was pithy, some muttering about soft focus and not being able to "really nail it".

And yet I love this image. It tells a story, sets an enjoyable scene, makes me smile. Is that not, in the end, what photography is about? Joy, speculation, memory, moments, enjoyment...among many others.

It was a challenging question in its simplicity, but one I think all photographers have wrestled with at one point or another.

Perhaps it is indeed a perfect image, even with its little imperfections, solely because it's a photo that brings me joy when I look at it.