If you’ve ever watched Bugs Bunny cartoons, you may remember one called “Sahara Hare”.  Burrowing amongst the desert dunes, Bugs pops out of the sand with his suntan lotion and beach gear, shouting “Miami Beach at last!”, and then zooms off looking for the Atlantic Ocean.  After running for what might be miles over multiple sand hills in the blazing sun, he’s exhausted, sweaty, long ears hanging down and finally says “Man, dig this crazy beach.  Must be low tide.”

No dunes in this picture but it looks like hiking boots might help.  So, is there a story here?  Yes, but first...

There are, of course, multiple interpretations to this image, not least of which is the concept of married life as a long journey.  The trip is initially undertaken on the hot sands of hardship and self-denial within site of the tempting lush meadows of easy credit.  Okay, maybe not for everybody but...for some anyway.  If you can embrace that idea, it’s a very inspirational photograph.

Truth be told, though (and here’s the story), the original image lacked some of that spiritually uplifting feeling - it needed “adjustments”.  Oh, everything in the picture was really there; nothing was added.  The couple were actually there, as were the trees, the sky and the sand.  However, this beach was and is in the city, and modern life, on that day, was abundantly in evidence.  For the sake of the inspirational message (and a little serenity) that surplus visual content was shown the door to digital hell.