But one day that ceased to be enough. I had hit the limitations of what I could do so blessed with the fortitude of total ignorance I left my trusty point and shoot behind and took the step up to the next level and what a murky and unforgiving place it has turned out to be.

As I peeled back the layers of understanding any belief in myself or my ability was slashed away like virgin forest under a chain saw. It very quickly became apparent that I knew nothing and just about every photo I had ever taken was worthless. Numbers and jargon towered round me like an impenetrable jungle, focal lengths and ISO numbers would loom out of the shadows leering at me and the nagging doubt that I should be shooting film buzzed around me head like a swarm of obsolete mosquitoes.

But worse was yet to come, a clawing, corrosive uncertainty that threatened to destroy my very faith in the art of photography and it can be summed up in a very simple question: What is a photograph?

Well ‘duh!’ I hear you cry, it is a picture of something. Easy. But it isn’t, is it? Just about every photo you and I have ever seen has undergone some form of post processing. And if photo is meant to be ‘of something’ but that image has been manipulated then it ceases to be a representation of what was photographed but becomes what the photographer wishes had been photographed.

And that is cheating.

And not the good sort of cheating either, no, this is the bad sort that distorts reality and makes a mockery of life and nature. Is it not enough to see that the garden is beautiful without having to Photoshop in fairies as well?

So today I slay this personal demon before it consumes me. I herby promise you that any shot of mine you may see herein is as close to possible the original shot. I reserve the right to, as Nat Geo put it, “[adjust] the basics needed to achieve realistic colour balance and sharpness” but more than that I shall not. And so help me God if I ever touch a HDR shot I give you all the right to hunt me down and insert any 3 pieces of my camera equipment in any orifices of your choice.

I will insert one caveat at the end though. I am not discounting all heavily processed works, indeed there are some fantastic images out there that owe everything to Photoshop but I see them as works of art closer to a painting than a photograph. After all, being a great photoshoper is not the same as being a great photographer.

……….you just never grow out of.

Brilliant isn’t it.

Simply copy and paste the images URL into http://www.findexif.com/ and it reveals all without the need to upload the image.

Weapons grade awesome.

P.s. Whoever has set this up has chosen to remain anonymous but if the creator of this site is cruising his or her link referrals on Google Web Master and it brings you here may I say well done!

Been a bit quiet of late I know but fear not my hard rocking amigos as there is plenty of good stuff bubbling.

I shall hopefully have some shots from my trip last week to Norway and Denmark up in the next few days and I have a trip set up for Scotland in July.

Plus, I have a new site in development at the moment that will sit along side this one but…..  more details on that to follow.

Love ya!

Just found an amazing site through the polished awesome that is Stumbleupon that I thought I would give an honourable mention here.

http://www.onsight.com.au/ features the work of Simon Carter who has managed to combine the two art forms of photography and climbing sublimely. He has a quality to his work that comes not from over polishing in Photoshop but from a supreme grasp of composition, a deep and understanding of his subject and most importantly having the balls-out audacity to get out there and get the shots.

Kudos.

I am, of course, talking about the Green Box Warriors. You can see them at family events, theme parks and sports days up and down the country brandishing top of the line gear which has probably only ever been taken off ‘Auto’ when it is switched on to ‘Night Mode’. How smug they sit with their perfectly exposed shots, never worrying about aperture, depth of feild, or exposure because some nice person in Japan has realised that this is all frightfully tricky and developed a mind bogglingly smart bit of kit that can do this all for them in a fraction of a second. They will never get home and realise that they had the ISO too high or that they lost an amazing shot because they forgot to reset the exposure compensation. Just about every photo they take will be just about as technically precise as it is possible to be. And, damn it, there is a part of me that envies this.

Now don’t get me wrong as people much wiser than I have said “photography is half science, half art” and you soon hit a wall in your development if you do not take the scientific plunge. To comprehend the relationship of light, size, speed and sensitivity that governs how a camera works opens up a whole new world of possibility but I can’t help but feel that while not understanding this is a disadvantage it does utterly void a photograph of worth.

Imagine your eyes gaze upon the most beautiful photograph that could possibly exit. Its composition, its detail, its light and its subject all collude to make the most beautiful pattern of shapes your mind can bare to witness. As you reel in true awe from this you notice in that, horror of horrors, it was shot in ‘Auto’. Does it make it any less of a photograph? Does it detract from its worth? If you answer ‘yes’ then I call you a liar to your face. To say that because something has less worth because its creation was machine assisted simply does not bare up to logic. Would you consider a car less of a work of art and engineering because a computer assisted in calculating its parameters? Would you consider man walking on the moon less of achievement because a computer calculated the necessary trajectory? Is a photo worthless if it was shot manually but then Gimped afterwards? Of course not. So how is it defensible that a somehow a computer calculating the best settings for the conditions detracts from a photo?

So what can we draw from this? I think the answer is a simple one. Understanding how a camera works and how to translate these principles into a quality photo is important. Equally important is the ability to recognise shape and form and translate that into composition. Most important of all is to be out there taking photos. Good or bad. ‘Auto’ or ‘M’. Little Johnny’s sports day or the Running of the Bulls. Every time you see a Green Box Warrior rejoice that here is someone indulging in the privilege of the image.

Of course, should someone invent an auto mode that composes the photo as well as the light………