... met a photographer who said to me, "i don't do any photoshopping ... i do real photography" ... [he also made sure i learned how many megapixels big his camera's sensor was, which i'm thinking he somehow related to the size of something not a lens] ...
... here's an original, snapped on west bay's iron shore, near the fishing place just south of the turtle farm ...
... here's the same image, "photoshopped" to appear as it did to my eyes ...
... another example, taken near the chinaman's in newport, rhode island ...
... from the digital image file, my "negative," this is how my mind embraced the scene ...
... if you asked ansel adams, "i'm thinking of becoming better at printing my images ... what should i bring with me into the darkroom," his response would most likely be, "knowledge of the zone system, your eyes, your esthetic sensibility, a sandwich, and, always, the following:"
... for those of you who are completely involved in photography as a "digital" medium, in the ancient "chemical era" these were the tools used to correct/adjust/manipulate images ...
... when i first began to take pictures i would encounter "real" photographers who would scoff at my little olympus rangefinder, commenting, "well, someday you'll get a real camera, like mine, a leica," or, "when you're really serious you'll start shooting 2-1/4 negatives," or, my absolute favorite, "why, your ektachrome film is just fine, for amateurs, real photographers only shoot kodachrome" ... some things seem to never change, do they ...
"you don't take a photograph, you make it"
ANSEL ADAMS