The older I get the less I sleep. At times it is frustrating dealing with insomnia but I find that the wee hours of the morning gives me the quiet time to work on an image without any distractions. I think back of my many years working alone in the darkroom and it was a space of little noise or interruptions. Once I entered the space I had a mind set and focus of working on printing an image. I knew I had maybe three to four hours of a good concentration level before I tired out. After that I would mix chemicals or do other mundane task the darkroom work required. The digital darkroom is much harder to maintain a steady concentration when working on an image. There are frequent distractions that come with being on a computer and doing photography. A simple notice of an incoming email message will take me out of my processing mindset and I end up just saving the image off to work on later. If you take your photography seriously you will need to find a way to work without frequent interruptions. The steps to processing of an image takes analysis, execution, and finalization in order to achieve a satisfactory image. A disruption in any phase will most likely end up with falling short of achieving a successful image. So, do I like working on my images when I should be sleeping? No, but it does help me produce some of my favorite images.
