Just Because You CAN . . . .

. . . does NOT mean you should.

I've been a little too excited about my new CS4, it seems, for I have been doing very uncharacteristic things. I mean, sure, I love a good picture collage, and fine, it's all good to add a little "Janey Jump Up" now and then, just to be cute, but THIS is getting ridiculous:

It all started out so innocently, with my searching for shadows for this month's photography assignment, and I found some great ones in Janey's bed:


Then to accentuate the shadows, I turned in BW:


It's a good enought picture on its own, but I felt it was a little lonely, almost sad without an actual BABY in the picture, so I thought I'd tell a little story through a mini-collage:
Then, because I had just downloaded some fun new fonts, and because I had a cute title for the picture, I thought I'd just SLAP the title RIGHT on the collage, and what do you have?

Photo Scrapbooking.

Not that there's anything wrong with that . . . it's just . . . not for me. I'm not a big scrapbooker. Plus, what is this for? I mean, if I were putting it into a scrapbook, sure, or some other little storytelling project. But a photography assingment??? Nope. And to be honest, for my own personal style, I'd choose the collage without words over the cutesy one with words 9 times out of 10. So why do I do it? Because I can, I guess. Because I'm practicing with my new software? And also because every now and then, words can really accentuate the picture and help tell the story.

In this case, it was a mistake. Without the words, viewers can bring to mind their own stories. Did she just wake up? Will she not go to bed? Is she just having some pre-nap playtime? Does she just love time in her crib?

Yes, much better.

So, I'm posting this to remind myself to EDIT my edits. RETRENCH! Sometimes simple is much better.