What's New - Jon Bolden’s Journal

When I was in Europe this past fall, my traveling partner and  I had both neglected to take a watch with us. My solution was to use my point-and-shoot digital camera, snap a picture of the ground, press display, and then read the digital time-stamp. I decided to post a collection of those photos. It’s interesting to see what is interesting by accident. When no thought or direction is behind a photograph, how does one perceive it? I promise that none of these on were on the toilet.

Hey everyone, look at me! I’m a MAN. I don’t get worked up over my emotions.

I keep a nice safe distance from anything that might upset me.

Everything is cut and dry, black and white.

I hate to love, I LOVE to fight.

I’m a MAN!

Doesn’t that make me more attractive?

Don’t you wish you could be a coward and tuck everything away?

Don’t you wish you were too big of a whimp to admit to how you really feel about your life?

Don’t you wish you were like everyone else you know and just going through the motions of life, afraid of the truth?

People often ask me about “enhancing” my photos. I like to use the word “develop”. When you shoot a RAW photo with a manual camera, there’s little to no interpretation involved. A simple “point and shoot” automatic camera will make interpretations about color, contrast, sharpness, and exposure. The immediate results will often be more appealing than a professional SLR shot that is RAW. The contrast is usually low, colors dull, and no cropping / straigtening made. This is the number one reason why I don’t upload photos the very next day I take them. I want the opportunity to crop, set white balance, and adjust contrast to interpret the photograph in the way I originally experienced. I also want to exclude multiples or blurry shots. The pictures tell a story and they represent your work.  Here’s a simple shot before and after with slight color increase, contrast boost, and photoshopping the hair out of her forehead.