Is that a painting?

First, just let me say Happy September 1st!  This means my favorite season is right around the corner… 21 days and counting! Shorter days, dropping leaves (probably from the hot days and overly dry spell), and mums showing up in the garden centers are all signs of FALL!

Back to the question.  Is that a painting?  I was asked this a lot this past weekend when I had my photography on display at a local arts fest.  More times than not, I stumbled over my words whenever I tried to answer the question or an even harder question to answer was “how do you do that?”  Although, I particularly enjoyed when a child asked me “is that a painting?”  Because when I said “no, it is a photograph,” they looked as though I had just performed a magic trick.  However, young or old, they are not easy questions to answer when terms like Photoshop, textures, layers, plug-ins, blend modes, etc… sound like a foreign language.  After a few lame attempts at trying to answer this question, I finally heard myself say “sometimes my photographs just need a little extra something”  and that’s what I do, “I give them a little extra something.” 

I did a post on these gazelles a while back… obviously not an ideal background

That’s more like it. Don’t you think?

As a photographer, there are so many elements out in the field, so to speak, that we have no control over.  Sometimes the background is all wrong for the subject, sometimes all there was to work with was a gray drab sky and a white puffy cloud or even some snow would make all the difference.  Even in a controlled studio, it may take a little extra something in post to make that vision appear (like the pumpkins above).  But there is one thing that remains a constant… in all my images… it is the subject ~ whether it is the pony in the field , the barn that looks like it will topple over with a soft breeze, the little white house with the blue roof, or how the tall grass sways on a warm summer day.   It is always about the subject and the reason I stopped to take the photo in the first place.  So is it a painting, no.  I can’t paint.  Is it my interpretation of a photograph… or 2 or 3 or… photographs.  You bet!

Just a reminder, September also means the deadline to enter the Transformations Exhibit is fast approaching (yikes! note to self, too).  Get all the details HERE.

HAVE A WONDERFUL AND LONG LABOR DAY WEEKEND!

Until next time,
Maria