How seriously do you take your photographic art?

How seriously do you take your photographic art? How much effort goes into the initial image? Does the same amount of effort go into the final artwork?

I have always said that the camera cannot reproduce the image I have in my mind’s eye. I can often get close but it is very rare that the final work is complete at that time of the shutter release. As much as I love technology until it gets to the point where the camera can “read my mind” (and I am not sure I want that) I will always further develop my photographs using software or darkroom techniques to further bring them to match my vision.

The amount of time to develop the featured image was more than the actual time it took to set up and capture the initial photograph. I added nothing and removed nothing but to match my vision there was a lot of work done. Correcting perspective due to lens distortion, conversion to black and white, dodging and burning, along with adjustments to contrast. Modern software made the process a bit easier but even with the built-in artificial intelligence in making selections I needed to manually assist in fine-tuning the selections.

While I take my photographic artwork seriously it doesn’t mean I don’t have fun and enjoy it. The creation of the final piece of art is personally rewarding to me. I love seeing my vision come to life.