Thoughts on photography, processing afterwards, art and personal choice

You know, I hear a lot from other photographers and from a lot of friends.  They will comment on pictures that appear to be unnatural - meaning they were processed, and some will brag that their pictures are SOC (straight out of camera).  There for a while, I followed the later.  Then something happened.  I switched to digital photography.  That was over 7 years ago and I haven't looked back.  Now I will admit that I know NOTHING about the specifics of anything.  I can't tell you how to use all the features on your camera, I can't tell you all the differences in Photoshop Elements, I am JUST now learning how to use Photoshop CS 5 (and boy can I tell you that I have only scratched the surface!).  I can tell you though how much I enjoy taking pictures, how much I love playing with them in software on a computer to make them sparkle, shine, correct them, manipulate them, basically do anything to them.  I have learned in my short 40 years, that it's not all about the "how you get there" as much as you enjoy "the getting there".  If you enjoy trying to get that perfect pic SOC, then by all means have at it!  I went to school to learn photography, studied for 1.5 years (it was a two year course) made the dean's list the entire time and was inducted into the technical national honor society.  You know what that got me?  A sticker, a diploma (to say I have one) and lots of wonderfully spent hours in a darkroom doing what I loved at the time. 

You're probably wondering why this rant was started.  Well, it has to do with the picture above.  I did a before and after just to see HOW much processing that picture took, and well, I can tell you it was a lot.  For a while, when I was applying the diptych to the two pictures (learning how to use clipping masks), I wondered, what would folks think if they saw the original and then the dressed up version?  That I am a fraud, that I really can't take those pictures without photoshopping them?  That I cheated the profession somehow?  Then I sat back and thought a little more, after it was finished and sat in wonder, knowing that even if I sat in front of that tree, waited for the perfect lighting and had the largest format camera around, I could never have applied all of that to the film negative and get what I really wanted to show in that picture.  The same goes for any of those that I have posted lately.  It's not about the "how it started", it's about enjoying the development of the picture and applying what I want to make it say when I took the picture.  I envisioned how it would be cool in black and white and contrasty, but I was traveling and there's no way I could have waited for that light to turn "just right".  So, I have the wonderful ladies/gentlemen at MCP Actions, Coffeeshop Blog, Pioneer Woman and Pure Photoshop Actions to thank for all of it.  I took a perfectly bland picture, flat/not contrast, badly composed and uninteresting, and applied actions to sharpen, enhance, turn black and white, add contrast, dodge/burn/vignette, watermark and show off my pictures.  For them I will always be thankful for them making it something wonderful to do again.  I'll admit, I should be thanking Adobe too, but with as much money as I have given them, well, we'll just say that we're even. :)

Thanks again for taking time out of your busy day to read about mine.

Until l8r,

Kel