05-23-17 Yes, But Is It Art?

By Scott Shephard

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So the fact that I took a photo and then imported it into a program that tried to make it into a painting doesn't necessarily result in art. Frankly, the photo probably wasn't art to begin with.

But I must say that my path to photography as an occasional and often accidental expression of my creativity started when I was 13 years old. I read a book about Michelangelo and wanted to be an artistic genius, too. I thought it would be easy - if you were meant to be an artist, it was in your genes. But then I took painting lessons and produced something that no one would have called art, including my parents, who hid my paintings behind the furnace.

So I gave up painting and turned to photography, which only in the last 10 years became a serious attempt to produce "art." But today I played with a series of filters called Topaz Impressions that turned my recent drone photo into a painting. Kind of.

The filter I used in this photo is called "Georgia O'Keefe." I liked the "William Turner" filter because I like Turner's work. But, like Turner's work, the filter made this scene also impossible to understand. Maybe that would have make it closer to art, though? . . . .

Phantom 4 FC330 1/240s f/2.8 ISO100 3.6mm 

Here's the original photo

And "Rain, Steam and Speed" by William Turner