When you pick up a piece of equipment that is comprised of various pieces of plastic, electronic chips, metal, and glass than with the use of a variety of different settings, Shutter, ISO, and aperture that you adjust with a wheel or button then place this in front of your eye or view through a screen on the back of the instrument and adjust the focal length and a variety of other things with this camera. You now remove the electronic device that has captured the pictures you then place that card in a reader or insert it in your computer, or use an electronic cord from your camera to computer/laptop. You now load these pictures in some PP software designed by someone else's genius. You gaze upon your pictures and select the ones you perceive to be worthy of enhancement. Then by using a variety of sliders provided by this other person's genius you manipulate this and that. not quite finished you use another software program and its sliders and related enhancement manipulations. Now you look upon the finished electronically altered photo and proclaim ...yes I have created art ...I am an artist. No, you are a person with a camera.

It is about taking photos. One of the tings about taking photos that should be easy to understand, but does not seem to be for some people is that taking photos includes choices about fstop, shutter speed and ISO. Good photography is about using the three portions of the exposure triangle to create a photo that accurately describes your vision of the scene. That could mean using a higher ISO and a higher shutter speed and completely freezing all motion, or that could mean using a lower ISO, a slower shutter speed and allowing motion blur, or it could mean using a higher or lower fstop to keep the entire scene in focus, or to have only a small portion of the image in focus.

The only area of photography that requires shooting exactly what is there is photojournalism, and even in that selective focus is accepted. I am a photojournalist. In my job I need to make sure that what I photograph is accurate and describes the scene. Still, even with that it is acceptable to take cars in an auto race and pan to blur the background to show the impression of speed.

Photography is about the photographers vision of the scene, not necessarily about what is actually at the scene. If you want to take snap shots, that is your privilege, but photography is also an artistic endeavor. For example, an awful lot of snapshots have a white sky. That is not because the sky is actually white, but because the camera's sensor can not see the same dynamic range as the human eye and the photographer chose to shoot on fully automatic while exposing only for the center of interest.

If that is how you choose to do photography that is your choice, but to be critical of someone else's work because they choose to take a different path makes no sense. That is one of the beautiful things about photography. 10 different people can shoot the same scene at the same time from the same location, yet each will have unique images based on their choices of lens, fstop, shutter speed, ISO, and composition. That is something that should be celebrated, not something that should be criticized.

When you pick up a piece of equipment that is comprised of various pieces of plastic, electronic chips, metal, and glass than with the use of a variety of different settings, Shutter, ISO, and aperture that you adjust with a wheel or button then place this in front of your eye or view through a screen on the back of the instrument and adjust the focal length and a variety of other things with this camera. You now remove the electronic device that has captured the pictures you then place that card in a reader or insert it in your computer, or use an electronic cord from your camera to computer/laptop. You now load these pictures in some PP software designed by someone else's genius. You gaze upon your pictures and select the ones you perceive to be worthy of enhancement. Then by using a variety of sliders provided by this other person's genius you manipulate this and that. not quite finished you use another software program and its sliders and related enhancement manipulations. Now you look upon the finished electronically altered photo and proclaim ...yes I have created art ...I am an artist. No, you are a person with a camera.

First of all, Mr. Traderjohn, I "created" those water fall images in the camera! I made the setting necessary to get the "silky" texture I wanted. I don't give a flying f**k if you like it or hate it, but there
is never any reason to diss someone for their preferences. That's just rude.

And as I said before, several "responders" to this post need to read the rules of the "Photo Gallery" section. It clearly states that unless solicited, refrain from posting critiques. Unfortunately, too many people on here feel that are so self important, everyone just absolutely has to listen to their opinions because they're the expert....wrong.

When you pick up a piece of equipment that is comprised of various pieces of plastic, electronic chips, metal, and glass than with the use of a variety of different settings, Shutter, ISO, and aperture that you adjust with a wheel or button then place this in front of your eye or view through a screen on the back of the instrument and adjust the focal length and a variety of other things with this camera. You now remove the electronic device that has captured the pictures you then place that card in a reader or insert it in your computer, or use an electronic cord from your camera to computer/laptop. You now load these pictures in some PP software designed by someone else's genius. You gaze upon your pictures and select the ones you perceive to be worthy of enhancement. Then by using a variety of sliders provided by this other person's genius you manipulate this and that. not quite finished you use another software program and its sliders and related enhancement manipulations. Now you look upon the finished electronically altered photo and proclaim ...yes I have created art ...I am an artist. No, you are a person with a camera.