By Rich Lewis
First off my apologies to all of you who were so supportive when I started this blog for not keeping it up to date. Sometimes life gets in the way. I’m back and will try to post something every week.
Not to long ago I had a conversation with some photographers at the Pinelands Preservation Alliance and the topic came up, as it usually does, regarding photographing a scene literally and interpretively using digital processing to artistically modify the image. It is a typical conversation among photographers but this time someone made an interesting point. Local photographers are establishing a market for photography created in the New Jersey Pinelands. Along with buying images of the Pines it also can inspire a desire to visit this unique place. Because of this one photographer said that they do not like “excessive” artistic manipulation of a photograph because people show up looking for a Pinelands that might not be there. The Pines is a place of great beauty but that beauty can be a bit more subtle than other places like the Rocky Mountains.
I couldn’t agree and disagree with this statement more. I’m a big believer in digitally manipulating a photograph to show what the artist feels about a place more than how it actually looks physically. It is an artistic tool we have to express ourselves more the way painters do. But, I can also see the point that photography, unlike painting, has a long history of documenting and it is only recently that digital has allowed us to totally change what we create with our lenses.
The day before this conversation I was out in the Pines very early on a beautiful foggy morning and photographed this bog. Maybe it was this conversation but I ended up keeping the “digital landscaping”, especially in the grassy patches in the water, to a minimum.
Very find photo. I believe that the photographer should have artistic license to portray what they ‘see.’ I noticed in the photo shows they often list the photo as Digital Photo. Maybe that is a way to inform the viewer that there may be digital manipulation.
Nice image Richard. I’d like to also see what it would look like after your ‘digital landscaping’! — Denise
That might be an interesting exercise, post both pictures to show the differences.
Thank you both for creating more work for me 🙂