This gallery is filled with images that started in my camera but ended up somewhere else on the "art scale." This realm of digital art brings up many questions. Is it really photography if all photo characteristics have been changed? Is it art if it passed through a camera or software? Is it honest if it is neither or both? All I know is that when I am painting with computer software, my creative experience is as exciting and challenging as when I was using brushes on canvas. As a painter, when something I saw caught my attention I captured it my mind and heart. As soon as possible, I made a sketch but not always. Sometimes I kept it inside me to grow until I was ready to give it "birth" in a new form. I selected which parts of the scene I want to "output" into my finished painting. I do the same now only my camera and software are my tools of choice. The process has not changed; the tools have.

Photography is art though it passes through a camera, which is machine. However, all photographers know that "photography as art" is far more than simply "point and shot." Technology is a tool, much like paint and brushes. It can be mastered and used with power in the creative process.

These images were not accidents. They were deliberate and a result of knowing how to use my digital "paint." I was aware of composition, color, line, shape, texture, and pattern. I was aware of the feeling I wanted to infuse into my art.

Perhaps they are no longer photography. Perhaps they are not really "traditional" art. But they are an interpretation of how I saw a particular scene or of how I wanted to interpret a particular idea. These came about as the end product of the creative process. That is the definition of art.

With the advent of digital photography and software that allows us to control those digital images, we have added another dimension to the world of art and photography. We should embrace its power and its limitations as we would any other art form. This art form is with us now as part of our changing world. It will never replace photography or art—nor should it, but it should be allowed to have a place of its own in the world of creative expression.