Picture Perfect or Picture Perverted

I'v starting to wonder recently what really makes a good photographer, because to be honest, these days what you think is a good photo can lie to you almost as well as a 2 ft long nose owning Pinocchio. You wonder what I mean by this? First of all lets get down to the core of the matter which is a good portion of the population getting a sudden urge to pick up a camera and play paparazzi, either with humans or nature ( I'm not complaining here as there have been some excellent shots from people's learning evolution. ) There has however, a been an unnaturally large surge in people buying cameras, quoting focal numbers and calling themselves " artists". So what does make a good photo? In years gone by it was good composition, a comprehensive understanding of how your camera works and some knowledge of the workings of light and optics. That, however is no longer a pre-requesit of a decent looking photo, as it has been replaced by that dreaded yet fateful crutch .... PHOTOSHOP , or for the more sophisticated of you Adobe Lightroom. Goodness how the masterminds have grown ! Once something preserved for teenagers who had sugar addictions and wanted to cover up the ensuing evidence on their skin, or Britney Spears' chronic cellulite, has now seem to become the natural process every photo goes through before being published. Lighting changes, over exposure or underexposure corrected, glows, shines, darkness, light effects, colour enhancements, and yes, the acne fix for those of us who are now ruining our liver etc. The list is endless, you name it and enough hours sat in front of your computer with photoshop as your loving guide will fix it. Some incredible pictures have come out of this process; unfortunately this leaves us with a dilemma. When a stunning photograph is view the question must be asked " did you really take this photo?" or was it just you, your photo, and photoshop in a steamy, colourful five hour threesome that produced this masterpiece. I'll leave you with the closest thing I can find to an example of what I mean, kindly donated by my sister amber, quite the mastermind with photoshop, but thankfully for other's badly taken pictures and not her own

Disclaimer: I do myself own a copy of Photoshop CS3 but my level of using competence is still at the teenaged skin problem stage. I also do own or co-own a Nikon D60 and enjoy experimenting, but do not profess any knowledge of how to use it professionally, only rediscovering a week ago that aperture and shutter speed are somewhat proportional to one another

sunshine, sleeping bags, and soccer

After four months of a self inflicted fellowship fast it was time to get all 12 members of the other home over here for 2 days of mass united get out ( with couples split and put on opposite teams, just to make things that bit more..... interesting :D ) and kilos of pasta to keep us from possibly losing any weight from the pre mentioned activities. photographic evidence follows

I strongly dislike it when

. people who you know gossiped, maligned, and insulted you years ago now all of a sudden want to be your friends and make up because it is in their social interest

. people play at home politics

. people don't live up to their full potential because hard work scares them

. the ones with trustworthy faces turn out to be chronic liars

. people play the popularity ladder ( one hopes they fall and break their face sooner rather than later )

. people engage in conversation only when personal interest is involved

Emotions, a woman's own femme fatale

It's such a shameful irony that the thing that defines us as womenkind, also can be traced as the cause of most of our downfalls. Why is it that we insist time and time again on subjecting ourselves to the thing we know will only cause us pain and embarrassment in the end. Yes I am talking about our emotions, that raging torrent of a tsunami that washes over any clear thinking we may have possessed previously. The most shocking fact is that we willingly subject ourselves to this natural disaster on a daily basis comforting ourselves with the oh so cliche phrase " it shows im a human and have a heart." Then we sit back and wonder why our male counterparts sometime are really quite clueless to our "eccentric behavior" and come to the conclusion that these aliens from Venus really aren't to be taken seriously. Unfortunately this is still a man's world and until we start acting a bit more like the predictable creatures men are, we will never succeed far in the business world. For who would want to work with something so unpredictable when in this line of work your job life is dependent on the ability to predict your customers, trends in the market and employees. Goodness this sounds like its turned into another self-help lecture aimed at the author.

Marmite and then some

Taking the love of marmite toast to a whole new level, which in this case is only a pleasure. I saw this ad whilst out and had to share it hoping to win some new converts..... ladies :D

All creatures great and small

For all those of you who might believe I think of animals ( the real ones that God made, not that person who voted against your point last home council ) as only a financial nuisance, here is to prove otherwise. Arguably though, none of these "little creatures" actually belong to me.....

Shooting with a purpose

Because violence and love can be combined in complementary amounts . Hoping you all get mortally wounded this year xxxxxx