Learning pastels: increasing level of detail

Wow, how large is the paper you used? The amount of detail this painting has is absolutely amazing. I assume you used pastel pencils to draw the little things, because I personally find soft pastels unfit for details like that, especially if it is a smaller size drawing/painting. I spend a week or so painting mine -  long time too. And recently I've been thinking whether it's worth taking this long to produce a copy of a photograph. I also used reference photos I took myself. Although the feedback has been great, I realize that I would rather spend less time on a painting not to lose the freshness, and instead focus on contributing something new to the painting that is not found on the reference photo, e.g. by using a limited colour palette, or unusual mark making. This isn't a criticism of working in a certain way, instead I wanted to share my thoughts on this topic that we seem to approach in a similar way. I'd be interested to hear yours as well.