Just Thoughts

A year or so ago an entry--actually 1st place winner--was eliminated from the National Geographic Photo Contest. The photographer had cloned out a single piece of trash. I understand their prerogative to hold the photographers to that degree because of the nature of National Geographic. I have many friends that feel they are cheating if they have to alter the photograph post camera. That is their prerogative. I do not hold my photography to that stringent a rule. As I have often mentioned I am a photographer that runs around snapping into creation my own little worlds. They are worlds that I like better than the one that I am forced to exist in.

Those that have followed my photography for a long period of time have seen both of the photographs posted here. The tree was taken with my Fuji 6900Z, my first digital camera, the tree with the Minolta A1. Both were proconsumer level cameras.

To the photograph of the tree there really isn't much of a story. The tree is located on what used to be the main entrance to the San Jacinto Monument known as Battleground Road. At the time I took this photographs there were probably a half dozen of these windblown trees. There may be one or two left. I took the photograph probably eight to ten years ago because I loved the shapes of the trees. As you can see in the original the tree was directly below overhead utility lines, there were utility lines between the tree and the monument, a road and cars and signs all disturbed what I wanted to photograph, the tree. As you can see, I removed everything that I felt interfered with the photograph that I wanted.

The photographs of the trains was taken in 2004 when the Union Pacific steam engine Challenger was visiting Houston. They parked it at the Almeda switch yards, an absolutely horrible spot for a descent photographs of the engine. The thing that surprised me when I went to do the post processing was the sky. Everything that you see in the retouched photograph was actually in the original even though it appears that the sky is completely blown out in the original. I love the juxtaposition of the modern engine with the Challenger. The two guys standing on the tracks are just visitors but I feel the photo reads as though they might be the engineer and fireman off the diesel who stopped to admire the older train.

Whether these two photographs would convince anyone that they should really learn to use their imaging software, maybe they won't. But I personally believe that post processing is every bit as important as taking the photograph. I don't do documentary photography. I do get in the camera what I can, but I don't let extraneous elements to detract from the photograph that wished to take.