I often went to the Winnipeg Art Gallery , when I lived in Winnipeg, and was always impressed and inspired by the carvings and sculpture of the Inuit. I learned that they created each work by interpreting what the medium, whether it was bone, tusk, stone or whatever, held inside it. It was their job to release the image. Working with photographs, whether you use traditional forms of image capturing and printing or digital programs, is the same. I was in Queen Elizabeth Park, in Vancouver, B.C., taking pictures to experiment with digital panoramic stitching, when I was struck by the image of the small dog and the tall tree. It was only two steps to the final image. Of course within those steps there were many alterations. I still have a lot to learn about Photoshop but I am enjoying the process. The first image is the way it would have come back from a basic commercial printer with little alterations. The second is my attempt to get the best cropping and exposure for printing a basic 4x6. The third is the way I interpreted the photo to get the image that I felt was waiting inside. In this case it was an elongated crop, desaturation of the colour and then a slight toning effect to try to get a look that would mimic a Victorian print. Others may have come up with different, maybe better, interpretations or not bothered taking the photo at all. But that is one of the beautiful things about art, the way it allows room for all of us.
