How did you...

People often ask me how I managed to create a certain photograph. "Did you use photoshop?" they ask, and when I tell them yes, they nod their head, a bit of the mystery of the photograph lost to them.

I don't think I'm going to really answer that anymore. What does it matter, anyway?

This photo, for instance - is beautiful. I love the colors, the composition, the depth-of-field. It's exactly how I pictured it when I triggered the shutter release- a photo that almost speaks of an imaginary place somewhere far away.

Little does anyone know it was taken on the side of a dirty, dusty road next to a busy highway - that the colors that morning really weren't spectacular - that the sun wasn't in the ideal position and the light was beginning to become very harsh. But I knew that, by using a large aperture, I'd shroud the tree in a blur - and add some mystery to the photo. I also knew that I could punch up the colors in photoshop later to make the final photograph more in line with what I had in mind when I first captured it.

Does it matter how I did it? Should it matter?

I hope not.