Less is more?

Yellow Flower, originally uploaded by nzcjs.

I can recall in the days of Kodachrome there was no opportunity for the average photographer to make changes to the image after it had been shot. Everything happened in camera, and there wasn't an awful lot you could do there either. Composition, depth of field and shutter speed were pretty well all you had to play with and, of course, a choice of focal lens if you had an SLR.

Now we can make all manner of changes very easily. We can also take hundreds of shots without the hassle of changing films, labeling them appropriately and then processing them ... or in the case of Kodachrome, posting them and then waiting a week or more for the results to come back. I can recall taking shots in Jordan back in 1978 and not seeing my results until 1979! Now I can see them instantly on the camera's rear LCD.

So, what about going back to basics. Forget photo manipulation software and concentrate on getting it right when you press the shutter. I'm not saying never use the software, but just try to take an image or two with the expectation that the software won't be required.

With this in mind I wandered around my back yard. The image at the start of this post is a crop of the image below.

No post processing save for a crop, and I'm not sure the crop has benefitted the image if truth be told.  This second image plays on the use of a diagonal linking the two flowers and perhaps has more interest than the first that merely places the centre of the flower on an intersection of thirds.  The second image was what I saw in the camera (click on the image to see it a little larger).  What do you think? Perhaps leave a comment below.