Filters
One
of the things I love to do in my free time, apart from writing, is taking
photographs. I am not a professional photographer, by any means. Still, I love
capturing a moment in time.
I
love taking photos of things of beauty...
...a new fallen snow….
(snow
with a black and white filter)
…a
pretty flower...
(orchid
flower with a color filter)
…fun
special effects…
(photo
of my Christmas tree, with a kaleidoscope filter)
…my
friend Luna, the moon, in all her glory.
(a
filter to enhance the color of the moon)
Along
with taking photographs digitally, I love to edit them. I own a tablet
computer, and have access to several programs, or applications, to help me edit
my photos. Sometimes the picture I took was too dark, too light, had too much
color, not enough color, or did not turn out the way I wanted it to. Editing
the photo through the use of different effects, or “filters”, enables me to
enhance the photo, to capture the moment I wanted to share.
The
wonders of digital photography and editing programs means that an image can be
manipulated as little, or as much as the viewer wants. Take for example my logo
for my publishing company, La Luna Press, designed by my friend Adam
Whitaker...
And
here is my logo, again, but edited with a digital filter….
While
playing with the different filters in the photography program, I began to
notice that while I was enhancing the photo, I was also making it something
different altogether. The original photo is wonderful, as is the variation. But
is it necessary?
Going
through this process in editing photos, it made me think about how we do this
in our daily lives. We all use filters. What we see is defined by our view on
the world. We edit what we see before us. Our perceptions of ourselves, the
world around us, is all filtered. Our eyes act as both the camera and the
filter. As a result we find things we did not see before, put things in a better light, miss things we should have seen.
Maybe
we should look at the world as a photographer would, looking through the viewfinder on
her camera when getting ready to take a photograph. Maybe we should look at things from a new perspective. Maybe we should take a step
back, pause a moment, and look at the bigger picture.
Perhaps
the view in front of us is perfect as it is. Perhaps the photograph does not
need a filter after all.
(the same orchid
photo as above, no filters)
© Esperanza Habla All Rights Reserved
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