I occasionally come across philosophical discussions about the ethics of using post production software on an image.
Working with this one, and nursing a sense of vexation at the challenges last night, I got to thinking of the different ways this sort of discussion can go. Here are my thoughts on this:
I’m in a helicopter with a young pilot I don’t know, flying across Fiordland N.Z. in snow flurries that saw us “winging it” near landforms for the sake of navigation, and frankly I’m lost to the myriad of ridges and valleys sprinkled by snowflakes and veiled by clouds being prised apart by a sun rising on the back of a weather front.
Then it happens again, like usual: I “see” a picture waiting to be made, and raise my lens to align with the spot of highest clarity, dubious in the misted perspex window that comprises half a door.
I get home OK and later examine the image looking for what I felt at that moment, and there are none. But I know those feelings are in the file somewhere!
This is the second attempt to extract how I felt, and nothing else. In short I don’t care about ethics – just how to frame it all to fit the sense of mystery that floated past me.
You see Fiordland, for all it’s beauty, “takes no prisoners”, but it embodies part of my heart!
