Years ago, this image won a small contest. I was, and still am, pretty excited about it. Because it’s a photo: A moment in time that I captured. No digital manipulation here.
And that’s how I approach my photography: I creatively capture what is in front of me. Now…I will be posting about what is creative in photography. A little cropping and color shift can alter the message of an image, to be sure. However, the difference between a photographic image and a doctored-digital-piece of art is vast. And I am still of the opinion that when competing in a photo-contest, the images should be photos.
With that in mind, how can I compete against cheaters? I can’t.
Producing a photo of what is actually there and truly exists is a skill, a talent and not easy. I spend a lot of time planning and executing my shoots. And more time developing my images so each represents what I saw. You know: Reality. My goal is to expose the beauty and magic and majesty in the world.
But I am facing fierce competition from liars and cheats.
Oh, don’t get me wrong. Many photographers are more experienced and, dare I admit, more talented than I. And I love that competition. It drives me to improve. To strive. I am not talking about that.
So what am I talking about?
I entered a photo competition through a social media photography group. I’ve been a member of this group since its inception – and, for the most part, really enjoy the group and its talented members. But that one competition and the results drove me away. The winner had posted an impressive image – which was NOT a photo but a digital composite of several stock photos I had seen on Adobe.
She represented her submission as a photo. It wasn’t.
Digital art and photos are not the same. And here she was entering a PHOTO contest with a piece that was not a photo.
Cheater.
I tried to argue my point and was attacked by other group members – that digital art is just special photography.
It’s not. It’s put together on a computer – even using OTHERS’ images. So that artist never even holds a camera or a light meter. He or she does not have to plan and stage the shoot. He or she just downloads images – other photographers were talented enough to capture – and put them together.
That’s not photography. Period. That’s digital art.
Did the chef grow the herb? No. No self-respecting chef argues that he or she is a farmer.
These digital artists are talented – but they are not photographers. And we need a law.
Damn it.
