Bricks and Windows

Here's one of my favorites from my little photo odyssey yesterday.

Full disclosure--I played around a little bit with Picasa to enhance the colors and the contrasts, and I also amped up the fill light a little bit as well, I think.

As to my thoughts on photo editing debate (taking a note from Akinoluna's earlier entry on the subject here) -- well, I took a Black and White Photography class (that's film, by the way, not digital) in college, where I spent endless hours in the dark room wasting sheet after sheet of contact paper in what sometime seemed like a futile attempt at making the perfect print. Anyone who's never done that before and thinks that what is on the film just goes directly onto the paper with no editing -- in your dreams!

Like I said, I spent HOURS agonizing over the perfect exposure, making print after print with incremental differences, trying to get it as good as it could be. Now, they weren't usually huge changes, just things like:

cropping
lengthened/shortened exposure time
burning and dodging

You know, pretty basic stuff that EVERY photographer does/did (burning: exposing one small part of the frame for longer than the rest to make a really light spot darker; dodging: exposing the whole frame but blocking a small too-dark area from the light so that details can be seen). Ansel Adams was infamous for laboring over every detail of his prints in the darkroom, sometimes changing them into something almost unrecognizable from the original negative.

Anyways, the point I'm trying to make here is that I think making small edits to digital photographs like the ones I did to this one aren't cheating; they're simply following in a long line of photographers fiddling with their shots to get the best possible image out of what they took originally.

Now, people who do hatchet jobs by taking bits and pieces of several different photos to make one composite image, basically fabricating the image, is something completely different. It might be art, but it's not photojournalism. And for my intents and purposes, photojournalism is what matters. So none of my images will ever be anything but what I saw and photographed, with one or two small tweaks that doesn't affect the accuracy of the image.

Oh Frabjous Day!

Today has been a fabulous day! I took a walk downtown for a joint-shopping/errand/photo trip, and was fortunate enough to get several great shots of fall foliage and the beautiful afternoon light. I also received a phone call confirming me as an intern for a local paper! A paid intern! Granted, it's merely a free paper with a staff of (now) two, but I'll still be developing, researching, and writing stories which will then be published and I'll even get paid for it, which is the most unbelievable thing. Granted, it's only $20 per story, but that's a lot better than I was expecting--which is $0. Usually interns are granted the privilege of working for free, so any paycheck makes me happy :)

New Photos

I was talking to one of my coworkers, who is also interested in photography (and exceedingly jealous of my new DSLR!), during our lunch breaks yesterday about how I haven't been taking any pictures lately, even though I have this nice new camera. I was telling her how I would usually go for a walk downtown, and that's where I would take most of my shots, but since my ipod disappeared I've had no inclication to walk anywhere (I know, I know, I'm pathetic). Her suggestion was for me to try take a picture every day. It doesn't have to be great, or even that good, just. . . . a picture. Of course, seeing as how I'm slightly a perfectionist, I'm going to end up taking dozens in an attempt to get one good one. Oh well, that's the advantage of going digital :)

This isn't 100%, but I'm at least going to try taking one photo every day. I might not post it here, but I'll try, as, after all, this is what this blog is for. A medium for me to display my photos and to encourage myself to take more.

So, for better or worse, here is my first attempt at posting a daily photo. Enjoy!