I was busy working on my computer when my phone rang, and while going for the phone, I saw this outside my window. I rushed to get one of my cameras, then rushed to get this photo. The sunset looked awesome out my window, and amazingly it kept getting better, as I kept shooting - but then all the color in the clouds started going away, leaving only dark shadows. I took a few more shots, but it was too late. This was my third shot out of a total of 6 good images.
The more I worked at it, the more it looked on my screen like what I “felt” watching it. I hardly ever see clouds like this out my window/balcony, and there was barely enough time to “do”, let alone “think”.
I put the camera down, called back for my friend, and now it’s five or six hours later, but I wanted to see what was hiding on my memory card.
D3M_4329 | 2024-08-24.nef (11.0 MB)
D3M_4329 | 2024-08-24.nef.dop (15.8 KB)
One thing I’m puzzled about. What my brain was “seeing” was awesome, as in how did I get lucky enough to capture this photo. But now, when I look at the un-edited raw file, it’s nothing like what I “felt”. So I used PhotoLab to make the image look like what I felt. Now I wonder if I’m too addicted to PhotoLab, as my eyes see what I’m going to end up with, not what the un-edited world in front of me really looks like. I’m creating what I feel, which obviously, in retrospect, may not be what I actually saw. Or, to put it crudely, the “photojournalism” in my brain is telling me I went too far, but the little bit of “artist” in my brain wants to show what/how I felt.
Not sure if that makes any sense, as the camera has no idea how I “feel”; it just captures the image of what is in front of it. It wasn’t even my good camera, which is resting in my suitcase. But PhotoLab is magical, the more you learn how to unlock that magic.
The original file is posted above; ignore my .dop file, and see what each of you can do with this file.