Sometimes I sit in front of my computer and edit images all day. Today was one of those days. It was raining out. I put on some Groove Salad, “a nicely chilled plate of ambient/downtempo beats and grooves,” as their site says. Then drank coffee, lit some incense, and made this image. I got so sucked in I forgot to eat. It was my artist date.
How I Made The Photo
When I was standing on the Bund looking across the river at Pudong, the place you see in this photo, I wondered how my photo could be different from the millions of others out there. This view of Shanghai is as iconic as say the Eiffel Tower or the Brooklyn Bridge with Manhattan behind it.
At a certain point though, I think you have to let go of trying to be unique. Who cares if your photos are cliché? Who cares if millions of others took the exact same shot as you from the exact same vantage point. What’s important is that you took the photo. It made you happy. And now it’s your memory. The obsession to be original can actually be a huge creative block.
“Art is theft.” ~ Picasso
Instead, I try to embrace influence and steal from those that inspire me. I’m not saying that I try to copy others. I take bits and pieces and make it my own, because in the end what I produce is something that only I can make. That’s what makes it original.
I shot this image of Shanghai with my friend Jimmy McIntyre. While there, he mentioned how some photographers create a reflection in Photoshop for this scene. After seeing Jimmy’s version and learning how he did it, I decided to give it try.
Here’s a short video that helped me figure out how to copy and paste objects into another picture using Photoshop.
EXIF
- Camera: Sony A7 II
- Lens: Sony Vario-Tessar T* FE 16-35mm f/4 ZA OSS
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