Beyond the Standard
I didn’t edit these*. In fact, I was very intentional about not editing them. When I got home, I looked at the photos and said “okay, time to edit and retouch these,” and it was the heaviest feeling. I think we sometimes get so caught up in the pressure of photos living up to the industry standard that we can forget a simple and pure truth: as photographers we are artists first. Am I saying there’s no artistry in retouching or manipulating photos? Absolutely not. There is great and often amazing artistry in using technology to make vibrant one’s work. I’m saying, sometimes it’s okay to like something for what it is, especially when it’s yours. *I did fix the chromatic aberration and do lens correction on all these photos and turn up the exposure on one of them.