Friday, December 19, 2008

Favorite photography site


Reeds and stones, originally uploaded by jiihaa.


Bush, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Ever since early October when I managed to capture some impressionistic photos at the Laajalahti bay, I have returned there every once in a while to try my luck again.

But that time in October is still unsurpassed. When taking the photos, I had a target in mind, trying to catch the impressionistic quality of the scene by the camera, and although the photos were a bit different than my vision, they were for me a revelation about how the camera can be used to depict reality in a way which would be extremely difficult to convey with other means.

Today I had a short visit the the Laajalahti area, but didn't manage to do much, because the cloud cover was extremely heavy. This [first] photo [above] is a result of some experimentation in LightZone. The original was true to reality - gray, flat and lifeless - but I wanted to have something a bit different.

I'm not sure whether the result has any value as a photo, but it is a milestone in the way I have been thinking about photograpy. I'm no longer so hesitant in using post-processing to change the photo to better correspond with my vision of reality, or even start a journey in Photoshop without a pre-determined destiny.

Update: I added another photo from Laajalahti, it also was processed in LightZone, with a bit different target in mind. It seems that I'm indeed willing to experiment more on the computer. But going out and taking photos is still the best thing about photography.

No comments: