As you may have read in a previous post, my nephew Nick recently married his love Elysia and Nikki and I were there for the festivities.

I took a few family-style photos which I will be sending their way very shortly. I took two of my photos and worked them into this finished piece. Which may induce some arguments from my photographer friends.

Some of those friends are purists, and quite vocal on the subject of using editing software. They say a real artist (whatever that may be) would never use software, only the camera. They would probably start yelling about realism and artistic integrity or some such nonsense, before looking around for a loom to smash. Pish, I say. My own position is, art is something personal that you create, not something you wave a camera at. Let me explain. Talented photographers stand out from the crowd, not because of their expensive gear, but because of the way they think and manipulate their subjects and their lighting. A great photographer can use a cell phone to create something beautiful. They can do that because they understand that a beautiful photograph is created first and foremost in the mind, before you even pick up the camera.

Which, despite any differences my friends and I have on the subject of whether to use editing software or not, is common ground. Whether you pose people for portraits or take multiple shots with the known intent of compositing them together later, the idea starts in your head. You know how you want the end result to look and how you need to shoot to get it. You have a plan.

I planned this composite. I wanted to juxtapose the symbolic cake decoration against the happiness of the newly-weds. Problem. The wedding cake was a hundred feet from the dance floor with over eighty guests between the two. There was just physically no way to get this photograph in a single shot. So I shot the cake, then moved my butt to the other end of the room to shoot the happy couple’s first dance. I took both shots in to Photoshop and spent a couple of happy hours creating variations on a theme until I decided that this was the look I wanted. Great fun.

The point is, there was literally no other way to do this. So this is something a purist would never be able to create.

Which is unfortunate. I don’t feel that it makes sense to close yourself off from new creative possibilities. Live a little, guys. Shake it up. Some creative types use oil paints, some watercolours. Some carve marble, others wood. Some crochet famous historical events. Some use only cameras, others (all professionals) use editing software, usually Photoshop. Some even try crazy new ideas, like painting statues or carving vegetables.

Is this art? Pish, I say again, and that is not an easy word to work in twice. I just know that this is how I wanted it to look. I planned it, I created it and I like it. And that last one, my Luddite friends, is the only justification I need for doing it.

Ultimately, that is the whole point of creating anything. Isn’t it?