Psycho_Babble
The Journey (Smoke Photo Art #365)
Smoke Photo Art.
"Experience is the best teacher of all. And for that, there are no guarantees that one will become an artist. Only the journey matters."
Harry Callahan
#365!
Well, here it is. I struggled for a long time trying to figure out what I should do for my 365th smokreation. I tried to think of something new that I could do that would wow people, but you can't force creativity. In the end, I decided to go back to the beginning and do something that reminded me of why I became addicted to smoke photography in the first place. The simple lines and curves, the wonderful shapes, the way color interacts with the smoke, and the transparency and sense of solidity that smoke can have when captured in a photo. My first smokreations were pretty simple, just a single smoke photo with some color added. This one is the same (although I've learned a few new things about coloring along the way!). Over the past year, my work has become pretty complex, but most of my best smokreations start with a decent quality photo, even if you can't always see that in the final product.
For some reason I feel a need to remind myself that I'm a photographer, and that my work is based on a photograph and is not a digital painting. Why should that be important....why do we feel a need to say "captured in camera" as if that makes the work more legitimate? I sometimes feel defensive about my work....is it photography? Is it art? How much manipulation is ok before one shouldn't call it photography? It is unfortunate that we make such distinctions. Somehow we think if a photo is manipulated too much, it is somehow not a photo anymore or is even inferior. Or as one flickr member said "so you start with one photo and then photoshop the living crap out of it? in my opinion that's no longer a photo but that's ok. i love the result!" (I take offense to that comment....on several occasions I have photoshopped living crap INTO a photo ; ) ). Yet we accept the removal of all color from a photo (which resembles nothing in real life) to be the quintessential form of photography.
I have had a hard time knowing which flickr groups to submit my work to, since it doesn't look like most of the other pics in some of the groups. Fortunately, over time I have found other flickr members and groups that don't make such rigid distinctions and have accepted my work for what it is, a creative process that starts with photography and ends wherever I damn well feel like it. : )
Thank you all for accompanying me on this creative journey over the past year. Your feedback has been so encouraging. I'm going to take a short break from smoke photography, but I will be back....I have lots of photos on the hard drive to work on.
The Journey (Smoke Photo Art #365)
Smoke Photo Art.
"Experience is the best teacher of all. And for that, there are no guarantees that one will become an artist. Only the journey matters."
Harry Callahan
#365!
Well, here it is. I struggled for a long time trying to figure out what I should do for my 365th smokreation. I tried to think of something new that I could do that would wow people, but you can't force creativity. In the end, I decided to go back to the beginning and do something that reminded me of why I became addicted to smoke photography in the first place. The simple lines and curves, the wonderful shapes, the way color interacts with the smoke, and the transparency and sense of solidity that smoke can have when captured in a photo. My first smokreations were pretty simple, just a single smoke photo with some color added. This one is the same (although I've learned a few new things about coloring along the way!). Over the past year, my work has become pretty complex, but most of my best smokreations start with a decent quality photo, even if you can't always see that in the final product.
For some reason I feel a need to remind myself that I'm a photographer, and that my work is based on a photograph and is not a digital painting. Why should that be important....why do we feel a need to say "captured in camera" as if that makes the work more legitimate? I sometimes feel defensive about my work....is it photography? Is it art? How much manipulation is ok before one shouldn't call it photography? It is unfortunate that we make such distinctions. Somehow we think if a photo is manipulated too much, it is somehow not a photo anymore or is even inferior. Or as one flickr member said "so you start with one photo and then photoshop the living crap out of it? in my opinion that's no longer a photo but that's ok. i love the result!" (I take offense to that comment....on several occasions I have photoshopped living crap INTO a photo ; ) ). Yet we accept the removal of all color from a photo (which resembles nothing in real life) to be the quintessential form of photography.
I have had a hard time knowing which flickr groups to submit my work to, since it doesn't look like most of the other pics in some of the groups. Fortunately, over time I have found other flickr members and groups that don't make such rigid distinctions and have accepted my work for what it is, a creative process that starts with photography and ends wherever I damn well feel like it. : )
Thank you all for accompanying me on this creative journey over the past year. Your feedback has been so encouraging. I'm going to take a short break from smoke photography, but I will be back....I have lots of photos on the hard drive to work on.