Too Much?

January 27, 2024

Today, a bit of colour. This is one of those images that looks like it has been over-processed to increase the drama at the expense of reality. In truth, whilst it took the combination of multiple “bracketed” shots to be able to fully capture the range of colours and levels of light (the dynamic range), nature did all that was required in this case. No false colourisation required.

It got me thinking, though, about the degree to which we can be inclined to present an image of ourselves, especially on social media and other public spaces, that is quite unreal. It may well be that there are moments of our lives that are “full of colour” and drama; moments in which we feel fulfilled and joyful and we want to share them with the world. It is natural to want to do so.

However, this sunset image was taken in a hurry – the “magic” lasted only a couple of minutes and the scene that was unfolding in front of me had me scrambling to get my camera set up on a tripod, and the shots taken, before the sky faded to a dull grey. The viewer doesn’t see the forced march of 1.5 miles with heavy gear to get to this viewpoint in time; or the hours of driving to get there; or the fevered activity to capture the moment; or the time spent making the image look right once it is uploaded to the image processing software. I could go on…

So much of what we see of people’s lives are these transient moments – the highlights – the beautiful sunsets, the mountain tops, the times when the extraordinary surpasses the ordinariness or the mundane and lights up our sky. We should, of course, celebrate them; but we should also take care that in doing so we do not blind one another to the difficult realities of our daily lives.

Shot Information

Nikon Z6ii | Nikkor 24-200 f/4-6.3 | ISO 100 | 7 images – bracketed exp from 1/400 sec @ f/11 to 1/160th @ f/6.3