The Art of Photography

Photography to me is capturing images of the way I see things. Light. Color. Critters. Dog expressions. That sort of thing. It’s simple stuff. But that’s what I enjoy. That’s my idea of art. Others may not find my images all that unique. Perhaps they’re not. But it’s still the way I see things. Like this purple coneflower…

That bloom must be six inches across. The flower itself is like four feet high. The size impressed me. So I wanted a shot where the bloom filled the screen. I love the color, too.

Once I saw the image on the screen, I decided to tweak it a bit. Subtly at first.

All I did was darken the edges a bit. Maybe you can’t even tell a difference?

Then I decided to add some texture. I’ve seen people do some really cool stuff with texture. It takes practice. It’s yet another thing I don’t have the time I need to invest to master.

The result isn’t all that great. I told you, I need more practice. That’s not the point I’m trying to get at though. What I’m trying to say is that photography can also be about image manipulation. Post-processing (doing things to an image after it comes out of the camera) is one method. Creative scene making is another method.

I don’t even know if that’s how you’d describe what’s being done here. But I just had to share this bit of image manipulation/scene making/staging I stumbled across today that I absolutely LOVED.

This image speaks volumes to me.

It is one of many intriguing images from a blog called Dear Photograph, a new site where folks take photos of old images in the same present-day location. It’s hard to explain. This Happy News article does a much better job.

Here’s another example.

 

The first Dear Photograph image I shared doesn’t need a caption. In my opinion. It’s clear who the subject is in that one.

The second one does need a caption. I can’t tell just by looking who is speaking, although now that I look again, the green nail polish would have been a giveaway.

Mastering image manipulation software and having an eye for what changes to make are one thing.

This sort of image making takes real thought. Not only that, it’s way more powerful. Maybe because the subjects are people instead of flowers?

Kudos to the people who thought this one up and to the submitters who have done such a great job carrying the idea forward.

Here’s one more image that doesn’t need a caption. It speaks loud and clear all by itself.

If you’ve got some free time, have a look at Dear Photograph. Do some of those images really move you? Or does it feel like cheap, photographic trickery?