A friend commented via IM that he felt that yesterday's shot was too similar to the previous day's photo. He asked why I didn't crop into the childrens' lights on the field. My quick answer was that I really didn't crop my photos. To be honest, I have nothing against cropping photos. It's in the same mental bucket for me as heavy Photoshop manipulation. Again, I have nothing against photographers doing so. In my mind, they're all tools in a person's photographic toolkit.
However, I have this entirely personal aesthetic that says that I shouldn't have to crop my photos in post-processing. I feel better about my photographic skills if I can take the shot as a see it in the moment, rather than as I see it hours or days later. I have another friend who, once he started shooting digital, shoots several frames of a scene at a time, then later goes to pick out the best one. While I think there are certainly situations where this type of approach is warranted (e.g. sports photography), in my case I think it would lead to a lazy eye. I would stop being careful and deliberate. While photography is largely an artistic pursuit, for me it is also somewhat intellectual. Is the exposure going to be right? Is the shutter speed correct? The aperture?
Anyway... I guess I should step down off the soapbox... Today's shot is not a crop of yesterday's shot, but rather a separate shot entirely. Cropped in camera rather than in computer...
