Suffern, United States

I have decided to put up this photo of autumn on one of the lakes near my home, because it captures the beauty of Autumn in NY State, forty miles from NYC, but also because it is one of my earliest digital captures from my kayak. The original, from the point and shoot, would hardly be recognized as it is dark, and yet, it has blown out details in all the leaves, and on the white birch trunk. A jpeg to begin with, and a small one at that, it still had enough information, saved as a tiff, to work on over the years. This recent re-edit is one of the last using CS5 tools and filters, plus a few from onOne's Perfect Tools. It represents a great deal of effort to work on details, and avoid over-saturating the already intense reds and oranges one gets when sun hits the tops of trees at the magic hour. Now that I seem to be participating with a special group of genuine photographers from a global community, I want to say something else about it and the criteria for wonderful photographs. In competition with in a local club in Rockland County NY, the judge noted the dead center horizon, and deep saturation, but he also grasped that rules are meant to be broken when the result is art...where color and line, texture and forms come together to re-create a moment in nature. When I painted, this is what I tried to capture, what it is for me to be on the water, in the light and color, in the northeastern United States...in autumn... and if you go to my private Apple gallery http://gallery.me.com/suelee10901#101004, you will see the title "If I could Paint." Digital photography has given me a medium which I can use to paint with pixels. This photo is not the result of a transformational filter. I have used this photo in software that transforms it to a watercolor, or frames it, or changes it. I will share some of them next, as I have this conversation with people I have never met, but whose wonderful photos give me a glimpse into their landscapes and visions. Thank you all for your kind regards and praise. I appreciate that YOU appreciate my work, and I love your work, too.