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.