My most popular pictures are in my album: Most faves, Comments, and Views. Please check them out.

When reality doesn't live up to expectations then change the reality!

As a digital photographer, the only thing I'm after is Visual Impact. Doesn't matter to me if it's an unchanged photo or a highly manipulated collage as long as it's visually interesting. To me reality is secondary to visual impact. I like color. I like skies that have interesting clouds. I like foregrounds that catch your eye. I add people, animals, buildings, water, and creatures to spice up my images. I have a personal database with over 1500 "cutouts" to add to my pictures. They are primarily from my own photographs, but I borrow free images when needed. Over many years I've created my own style which I'm proud of. I don't have the photographic talent or digital prowess of many of the others here on Flickr, but I don't think there are many who can match the diversity and sheer chutzpah of what I do. Thank you for taking the time to read this. I have an album here on Flickr with the pictures most liked by the Flickr community. It's listed under albums and contains my most liked pictures. My photographic journey is below, but they're not necessarily my best or most liked. But they do show my diversity. if you are interested. Russ Seidel

As far back as I can remember I've taken pictures. My first camera was a Kodak Brownie which took square photos. In college I had a variety of cameras including one with no light meter, and another with only a very wide angle lens. The results were very mixed. Around that time I started experimenting with photo montages physically combining different photos into "interesting" images. Again, the results varied wildly. For the next 30 years I took many thousands of slides most of which were edited out and thrown away. But I kept taking pictures.

I'm a good photographer, but don't have the patience to go out and take great photos. I make up for that by spending a lot of time editing my pictures in Photoshop. Digital photography was a revelation to me. I take good background photos, but there always seems to be something missing from them. So I blend segments of different pictures together and add them to my picture to bring them more to life. Over time I've let my imagination steer my art, and it's my belief that the images I created are more interesting than the original pictures. When reality doesn't live up to expectations then change the reality. They're my pictures, and I love the freedom to throw away all the rules and do as I please with them. That said, lately I find I'm veering back to slightly more realistic pictures - digital art. This is actually more of a challenge for me. And there is so much to learn from all the incredibly talented photographers who post on Flickr. That's where I am now. I just hope you like the images displayed here.

Russ

PS: I am attempting to support my photography addiction by offering my images for sale. If you are interested please email me and let's see if we can work something out.