Not every mistake is a failure. I had my camera set to manual exposure and took this image before I realized it. I took a bunch of other photos with the correct exposure and forgot all about this one. But when I saw it in my photo editor, I experienced an immediate sense of nostalgia., but I don’t know why.

Perhaps it is because this overexposure looks like a bad Polaroid? Maybe it triggered some deep memory? Regardless, I like the minimalism of this image. It brings a different train of thought than the properly exposed images, and I find myself returning to it.

Discoveries like this are part of why I avoid rules of photography. I prefer to explore each parameter from end to end, to understand how it changes the image and discover what effect it may have on me and others.