lonleylight

Thank you! I will continue to do what I was doing as it seems fairly in line with what you and Sandy describe. I know the answer should be "just do what you like". But I don't personally like heavily edited works myself and have found myself straying farther in that direction to get the look and feel that I want. But in so doing I've found the quality of my output vastly improved. I used to only allow myself very minor contrast adjustments. But as I've freed myself from those constraints and taken to very heavily cropping photos I've found I've freed up my eye to take most photos from what was shot to what I've seen, or much closer to what my vision was. I just don't want to land up in kitch territory if you know what I mean. Those are great shots btw!

Point taken :P

Lol that's a fascinating looking book!

I don't count myself as a purist but I also don't like to do things to photos that make them look like they could not have been taken naturally. What I personally am usually after is what I had in my minds eye when I took the shot, which is not always what was captured or indeed what was exactly there. It can be a fine line though. For example this photo I just developed I edited more than I normally would have to get the look I wanted. See the original as shot, then only with lighting adjustments and finally what I had in mind.

Thank you!! What you just said is the ultimate reason I probably can't do pro. It would ruin the passion. Random ironic correlation. The store I said I manage is a retail store selling video games and pop culture merchandise. I find managing this business has rather sucked the fun out of gaming and the like for me lol. As I said I like the people I work with but this connects with what you said. I couldn't have the same thing happen with photography for me. It really for me is about the thrill of seeing a shot I love. It's the skip of a heart beat when I see I've captured something I feel proud of, that I feel is beautiful. While I wish that were commercializable, and it kind of is, I don't want to ruin that aspect of it by getting into the trenches, where the money actually is.

Thanks for the compliments! And actually I rather agree with your cutting of those 2 inages too. There are multiple reasons why I probably am not cut out for pro work. The people skills aspect as mentioned above being the main one. The other is output ratio which honestly would just come with time. These photos have been collected over years and I tend not to get that many good shots when I go out to shoot. I definitely am not just randomly shooting mind you and culling from thousands of pics those that look good. Indeed I tend to be pretty methodical and sparing with what I shoot, usually not seeing much of anything and when I do almost always realizing to my disappointment that a shot that I'd love is ruined by some element or another. Even on holidays like the 6 days in HK this year I may onyl shoot maybe 200 shots at the most and from that I may only like a single shot, maybe 2. This output ratio would need to drastically improve. But that's really just about getting better and shooting a hell of a lot more which I really should do anyway, even as a hobby.