There is a tug-o-war in my head about the constant evolution of photography. I am sometimes impressed and sometimes depressed by all the emerging new technologies. I haven’t quite pin-pointed my dilemma but I think I am closing in on some clues that would allow me to explain myself to… well… myself.

There is an emotional attachment to knowledge acquired through experience, trial and error, successes and failures. You know, when you produce an image with limited means, and it turns out to be a great piece of work, something that at the time, you know it cannot be reproduced?. That is how I felt about my images in the days of film and paper prints.

I really enjoyed the fact that there was no way on earth to reproduce a print using the traditional methods, no scanners, no copy stand, just try again at the enlarger. It would never happen. You couldn’t get the same tones twice and I loved that about my work.

Theses times are gone now. Sure one can still be traditional as an artist, and enjoy the outcome of unique pieces or artwork, but then the brain kicks in. With the surrounding information overflow, zillions of tricks, tips, techniques about [what bugs me the most] how to “be creative” .

Does one really learn to be creative? I don’t believe so. Maybe you can pretend to be creative, or maybe when you start doing something, something else comes out of it and you are now all of a sudden creative. Or is that Inspiration?

Do you need [or can you buy it from a book] inspiration to be creative? Do they go hand in hand? How can you become creative by reading a book about creativity? OK. let me straighten myself before this post goes out on a limb about creativity.

Today I wanted to talk about how the evolution of tools for photographers integrate in your process. My answer is simple. Everything in life needs balance. Just like too much wine can make you drunk, too many options can get your confused. Balance and moderation are [I believe] the keys to manage your task as a photographer. I am talking about after the fact here, after you sat down and thought about what it is you want to create, you have a clear idea of your end product in your head and you want to materialize it. This is where I get frustrated and clearly, this may not be the case for everyone else.

Lightroom for example. It is a great tool for your workflow. It is almost kicking photoshop in the butt when it comes to productivity and management. But then comes “Downloadable Presets” from some dude, 200 presets that simulate anything from celluloid process effects to motion picture lighting effects.

Yes, it’s great, yes, but why did they do that? why couldn’t they let the user be the decider and creator of their own effects? why did they force this bunch of presets, Ok maybe not force, but still made it available for download, yes I understand I don’t have to download it, but how do you battle that inner devil? but what I am trying to say here is, this is almost like stealing creativity, packaging it in a box and giving it away for free. (Free here meaning something different , not financial) because frankly if someone would actually pay for this stuff, I don’t know. My problem with this is not the availability and the ease of finding ideas, it is the overwhelming amount of options that come at you when you are trying to create something original.

This post is also to be continued because I am not done thinking about this issue.

Please comment and question my ideas.

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