Fact: I only switched to digitals a few years ago. I used to use analog film SLR's for shooting. Along with that, I used to be somewhat of a purist when it came to manipulating my photos. I didn't like (photo)shopping them outside of what you could do in a dark room. I didn't even like cropping my photos. I'm not entirely sure why, might have just been the nature of film photography. I was still reluctant after switching over to digital, but since my reinvigorated interest in digital photography I've been learning more and more and the doors are just flying open. I'm learning so many new techniques and things you can't possibly achieve without some actual post processing work.

The reason I'm talking about this is because of the direction I plan on taking my photography. I've been looking into a few techniques and they really intrigue me. Advanced lighting, Draganizing (pioneered by Andrzej Dragan) and general digital rendering. All of which point towards portrait photography, something I've always been shy about in the pass. Not anymore.

Another thing that got me thinking of all this was Ulric Collette's smoke portrait. I saw it during the trip and been dying to try it out. I finally got a chance to do that earlier today with the raven shot. It's just amazingly fun. Check out his website!