I was brought up old school in photography. You take the picture, but you make the photograph. It starts in the camera by using every ounce of skill you can muster to get the very best shot you can from an exposure and composition standpoint, so that you do only the work required in post to realize the essence of what you saw and make it worthy to print. I’ve developed a ton of Photoshop skill over the last decade, but until now, I’ve only been using it to make reality pop in my photographs.
Not that there’s anything wrong with this philosophy. I’m still a staunch believer that you should start with the most excellent photo you can, but with all the technology available to us today, I’ve recently come to believe we’re short changing ourselves as artists if we limit ourselves to reproducing reality as we saw it. This may have been fine when all we had at our disposal was some emulsion, a few chemicals and a darkroom, but today the possibilities are limitless. I need more.
Over the years, I’ve experimented with photo illustration using images in my repository that I haven’t been able to find uses for. Not much of that work ever saw the light of day, but it allowed me to play, learn sides of Photoshop I never would have otherwise and get my creative juices flowing when I felt blocked.
“Fish Pond” is my most recent work. I starts with a photo I took in Lahaina, and includes a series of different blend modes, some lab color, a lot of masking and a little brush work. We recently made a canvas print that’s being used as part of the interior design in a rental condo unit we own here in Kihei.
Doing this takes a lot of work and more hours in front of the screen than I’m used to spending on my straight photography, but it’s immensely rewarding and is changing the way I shoot, and what I shoot. Tell me what you think.
