By Scott Shephard
Iron Creek - Black Hills, October 2007
Here’s a confession: This isn’t exactly what my camera “saw” when I took this photo of Iron Creek, which is down and to the left of the path pictured in my last post. Further, I can’t tell you what I saw after setting up my tripod and pressing the shutter release. This photo was taken 17 years ago and memories fade.
So if my camera didn’t see this and I don’t remember recording this moment, is it real? Well, like any other moment experienced 17 years ago and now recalled, it’s kind of real. In the case of this photo, the camera “recorded” everything you see here in12.7 million little squares of color and light known as pixels.
Like a recently recovered long-lost memory, I found this photo and gave it new light and maybe even new meaning. Below, you can see a bit of my process. The first photo is the “raw” capture. The second frame is the result of a few adjustments made in software. And the final photo is the result of more software with many careful adjustments.
In my photography, I generally strive to be an artist, not a stenographer. Good art of any kind (movie, painting, novel, etc) is a blend of “reality” and manipulation.
So if this photo is art, here are three qustions I feel compelled to ask: What do you see? (Reality) What do you think? (Reality + manipulation) How do you feel? (Pure manipulation)
Canon 5D f/22 1/3 sec ISO 160
