Manipulative March

In terms of photography, March has been yet another very active month for me. I started shooting in RAW format a bit more than a year ago, so I had – and still have to – learn about photo editing to develop my pictures. I like comparing shooting in RAW to analog photography: just as negatives would have needed to be developed in the olden days, pictures shot in RAW require some processing too.

This is why I have recently been dabbling in photo editing and here are some of the results. The pictures are far from perfect, but I have had a bit of fun while learning how to use the software. Deep down, I remain purist, however: I still believe that a good picture is one taken in the field, one that looks appealing even if taken straight out of camera and that does not need any adjustment or even change. My (deeply personal and subjective) enjoyment of photography stems from the joy of being outside with my dog and my camera and to portray the environment we move in ‘as it is’ rather than as what it could or should look like. I understand that this is problematic in more than just one way and may even challenge the idea of photography as art, which is neither my intention nor reflects how I see this hobby of mine. I have not quite found a conclusive answer to this, but at least it makes for an interesting discussion.

What I am trying to say is that – again, in a very personal opinion that is subject to change – I am rather hesitant to accept photography as an activity which mainly happens in front of a screen. I use photography as an outdoor than an indoor occupation (even though this type of photography has its merits too, of course!) and like having my camera with me when I am out and about. I enjoy going through my pictures after a shoot, but would rather spend less time editing them than taking them. Currently, this is not working out particularly well, but I reckon this is always the case when you are learning a new skill and still need a lot of practice.

In the following pictures I have been playing around with saturation, background lighting and removing unwanted spots and objects. While the current trend in dog photography seems to go towards very tidy, calm, smooth images with soft light, I have decided that – at least for the time being – my pictures best represent both me and Aramis if they are allowed to be a bit untidy and wild. I like the picture above precisely because there is so much going on, though I appreciate that it might be too messy for some aesthetes.

In order to get a fair number of acceptable shots, poor Aramis had to jump over this branch time and again. I love the focused look on his face on all of these pictures. As you can see, I took some of these pictures from exactly the same spot, but then edited them in different ways so that they have a distinct look about them.

In the picture above I removed all the branches from the top of the log. To me, the picture seems quite empty now (which I probably could have avoided by cropping it a bit).

I’ve always wanted to be able to take a picture of Aramis like the one above and am quite happy with the result. I love the blue hue in the background and generally like a dark picture. There is this idea that in a picture, a dog should always have his ears up and pointed and should not be panting. I generally pay attention to this, but when I took this picture, we had been cycling in the woods and it was one of the first warm days in spring.