Is this tile moribund?

Well I actually want to disagree with some of the forgoing. I also take photographs and manipulate them and I very much enjoyed this series. With modern cameras, excellent photographs are available to so many people. But changing them - as you have - requires artistic editing beyond the lens and can be awful or excellent.

I thought yours excellent.

p.

The problem with Photo Shop alterations is that they always look like Photo Shop alterations.  For me that is a negative.  (Not to make a pun) If you are going to alter the photos use pencils or pastels or paint, then it has a more unique look to it.  But on the other hand some of the photos are strong enough without any change.  The boardwalk could have been really strong.  But, think of the thing in front of you as 2-dimensional, just colors and shapes and lines and shadows, how might you arrange them in an interesting pattern?  What it is, is irrelevant, what you do, is relevant.  The chicks shadows could even be stronger if you isolated the shadow on the boardwalk.  It was my personal favorite.  I have a suggestion in getting better at only photographing what has the power in the picture.  One way to do that is to literally take a hundred photos of one type of thing.  Somewhere in the process you will get to the essence of what that thing is to you.  Secondly, take a roll of film a week without fail for a year.  The discipline is intense as you will quickly exhaust all of the BS that we think about and you will go to a deeper level.  And thirdly the other idea that I have is to take photos of things that look like something else.  In other words, do not reproduce what it is, but instead illustrate what it is not.  Joe

Here are some altered photos (PhotoShop) I worked on two years ago and I'm re-posting them here for your viewing and commenting.

Vicki

http://www.webpollack.com/creatively/photography/alteredimages.html