The Dark Sides of Nice Pictures

Like everyone else taking pictures I also invest time making sure it comes out the way I want it to be. That the electrical cable hanging over my head does not show up on the picture; that the strollers are gone; that the street is quiet; that the rain stops; that the smiles come.

There are many available tricks now made possible by computers. In some occasion I take several almost identical pictures and mix them later at home in such a way that the resulting picture has less strollers than any of the originals. Cheating? in a way yes, but sometimes I do not have the time to wait for enough of them to walk away and new ones keep coming. I also can bring some "sunlight" in a dull picture on the computer by enhancing its contrast and colors.

Best of course is using the real thing, that is, low-angled sun rays, and especially those soft ones from the last hour before sunset or first hour after sunrise. It gives stunning results almost whatever the subject. The only condition: being with your preferred camera at the right time and at the right place.

That is the beauty of photography, one can capture fugitive and fragile moments and give the impression it is always like that. But most of the time it is not and that is precisely why most take pictures, isn't?