From its very beginnings photography was not about capturing reality.  The acknowledged Father of modern American photography, Alfred Stieglitz (1864-1946) said, "Photography is a reality so subtle that it becomes more real than reality."  Even in the very early period of modern photography the image maker became an artist.  Their tools were limited by today's standards, but the photographs made famous by these early photographers were an expression of their desires and insight.  

     Google images from Alfred Stieglitz, and you will see New York City like you've never seen it before.  His photographs captured the city so wonderfully that these images have been copied and used as inspiration by generations of photographers.  He was instrumental in the acceptance of photography as a fine art; at a time the chemicals could probably kill you!

     Half a century of interest in Art History has taught me that putting that metaphorical "frame" around anything in our world changes it; your interest is focused on the subject in the "frame" not what is lost from sight.  When that shutter button is pressed, you've captured only a small piece of the world around you.  Your image of that reality would not be the one I might have, if I were standing right next to you.  That rectangle has now changed everything you've seen; your creativity has changed the real world.

     But what is real, and will you see it as I do?  Now we have at our disposal software that can make my photograph into anything my creative cells desire.  You want to put purple flying pigs in that stunning mountain landscape?  Maybe the sky should be green and the flowers as tall as buildings.  You've seen the news reports of how editors "Photoshop" famous people thinner, well now you can, too!  

     The creative process of photography, in the twenty-first century, is now limitless; limited only by your imagination.  Yet, a writer in a Popular Photography magazine recently complained of landscapes looking not real.  It's time to face the facts of what photography was, and now more than ever in its long history----photography always has been more art than a boring copy of someones idea of what should be.  The writer's photograph of geysers in Yellowstone National Park have yellows and shadowed blues that the human eye cannot see, just as those fantastic astronomy photographs from NASA are also not what you or I would see if we were that close to the Orion Nebula.  We see only greenish galaxies and nebula through my telescopes; because that's what your eye is capable of visualizing.

     So, is it wrong to "go too far" with your photograph of that tree, or mountain, or that wild animal?  Should you try to keep it just as you think it was, or should you let your inhibitions run with the artist in you?  Creativity is the fuel that drives our nation, and always has.  The critics didn't like Monet, Renoir, or that crazy Vincent guy who's work I love so.  My advice has always been to channel the little artist in your head; that creative character is the one that will make you feel like an artist.  

     Every hummingbird season, in the Wind River Canyon, I get real creative with a photograph or two.  Most of these wildly artistic hummingbird pictures never see the light of day, because I want people to "Fall in love with Mother Nature," not my artistic rendition of her.  But recently a certain artistic rendering of a Calliope Hummingbird (photographed July 2015) caught the imagination of a few people close to me----here he is.......... Calliope Hummingbird Portrait - Wind River CanyonPortrait of a Calliope Hummingbird in the Wind River Canyon, Wyoming.      This little male Calliope is the size of your thumb, and we know each other well.  I was experimenting with slow shutter speeds to catch movement and streaks of color.  There were two frames that caught my eye.  As he was coming in for a landing I'd make a series of bursts with my camera and 70-200mm f/4 lens.  He didn't care, and this went on for days.  

     This particular pose was cool, and I went to work with my subject.  I wanted a widescreen look, since scientists tell us this is how we see.  Cut away this, chop off that excess green, and get rid of the feeder.  Don't forget the rule-of-thirds; my elementary art teacher Mrs. Powers would have approved.  Now saturate the colors, and bring up the ones that speak to me; sharpen this, and more contrast; I like the digital grain, it reminds me of the texture of a painting.  A vignette will focus the viewers attention on his eyes, and make it more painterly.  The color of his gorget was brought up to its outrageous wine-red reality.  

     I loved this artistic rendition of my Calliope, but I was afraid to put it on my website----HogbatsPhotography.com.  He's beautiful, but not what I'd seen through my viewfinder; the entire image was tilted sixteen degrees to give him a more pensive look.  Reactions to the print made me realize that my artistic hummingbird photograph was worth offering up, I hope you enjoy it.  Shutter speed was 1/160, the f-stop was f/4, ISO 500; photographed just before eight o'clock in the morning, with no light in the bottom of the canyon that early.  

     As I've said in my Wind River Canyon Blog before, "Once you push the button, the picture is yours."  Go ahead, feel the artist in you, bring the lazy bum out and see what happens.  Make that photograph yours....make it sing.  And as someone told me recently...."don't be afraid."

*Happy New Year from the Wind River Canyon in the heart of Wyoming----it was six below this morning with a nasty, strong wind and sapphire skies.  May the New Year be a safe one for all of us.  Thank you for reading my labor of love.

Michael John Balog----Hogbats Photography----Wind River Canyon          

Callliope Hummingbird, "In Flight" - Wind River Canyon, WYCalliope Hummingbird in-flight photographed in the Wind River Canyon, Wyoming.