I rarely take pictures of children unless they accidentally get into the shot, but I made an exception because the jet of water looked interesting, and the joyful little girl enhanced the image.  I love that the water looks like a question mark, or a seahorse, which I’m sure she did not see, but it looks as though she is thrilled that a seahorse made of water appeared in front of her.

Aside from having a part-way decent exposure to work from, this took hours of work.  Adding contrast, dodging and burning and adding saturation in some places and removing in others.  HOURS.  This is not the kind of work I see myself doing long-term, but once in a while, you have to capture iconic moments, which this is, and the practice and experience of editing accumulates and pays back over time.  Wasted? Not a second of it.