The Occasional Odd Crop

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Where: El Cajon Boulevard, La Mesa, California (just east of San Diego)

When: May 28, 2009

Nothin' up my sleeve: Part of me wanted to really create a mood here by darkening the photo, sucking out most of the color, that sort of thing. I've performed such cosmetic surgery on plenty of photos. And when I did it today, it looked pretty good.

But I'm starting to rebel against that sort of embellishment. I've seen too many crummy photos that have been turned into crummy Art on a computer screen, and too many good photos ruined by overblown digital magic. It's easy enough that everybody can do it, but hardly anyone does it well. I'd rather just shoot photos.

Most of the time, at least. I'm sure I'll continue to use Photoshop's bag of tricks now and then. But not today. Other than a minor adjustment for contrast, I decided just to show this place as I saw it.