alpine

(this is not an image for a client, but a fun personal project.)

I was at an incredible property of a friend's in alpine recently, taking photos of my daughter and friends.  I walked out the front door, and saw this amazing sight.  standing there i was struck by the beauty and feel of the sight, and the majesty of god's creation.  i paused, taking it all in for a moment, and then i snapped the shot fairly quickly and moved on to visiting with friends/family.

when i brought it home, i realized that the image that my camera captured was less than picturesque - and certainly didn't capture the feeling of awe I felt while standing there.  so i uploaded it to trusty photoshop and worked on editing it until it captured the way i viewed it, and the way it *felt* to stand there.

i've heard critiques over the years about our overly photoshopped images - and the dangers of creating a lie through photos.  i think these critics are mostly talking about portraits and the shallowness of using photoshop to shave weight off a woman or remove her god-given freckles.  i certainly tend to agree with this - a photograph should be a person's real beauty, not our hollow ideas of what one photographer thinks is beautiful. 

however!.....haven't we all taken a picture of a fabulous moonlit sky, and then tried to show it to a friend who, in turn, is unimpressed because it looks so small and dull in camera?  There are some things that cameras still can't capture quite right even for the experienced photographer.  photoshop has made it possible to grab that moon, enlarge it, and make it glow to show to others and share that very special experience with someone you love.  and sharing a special experience with someone you love - that's the good stuff.