Day Thirty Six

This was a welcome slow day again. We had a two hour drive up to Bandon, Oregon. The weather here on the coast continues to be misty and foggy, which is normal for this time of year. It never bothers me, but photography suffers. You get pretty flat exposures and the temptation is to monkey them up quite a bit to expand the histogram and increase the contrast. I did that with today's photo of the Coquille River Lighthouse in Bandon. When I finished fiddling with it I said to myself, "That is not what I saw." Then I put it back the way it was. Now it looked like the scene as I remembered it.

Got me thinking about whether this is about photography or about graphic arts. You could argue all day about the relative merits of the two, but in the end it is what the photographer/artist wishes to achieve. I like to think of myself as a photographer. Making an image that represents what I saw is the objective. There are some situations that I find very difficult if not impossible. I have never ended up with a satisfactory image of a field of bluebonnets. The same for shooting upsun over ripply water and getting the tiny reflections. And then there are the giant redwoods and sequoias. There are many more. I am sure that you share a similar experience.

So in the end, it comes down to whether you end up with an image that satisfies you. If you are selling your work then you have to end up with an image that somebody else likes well enough to pay you money for it.