Matthew Durr Photography

There is a photographer I have been following around on DPReview.com for a while now who often posts threads detailing “my mind’s eye”. He tends to take pictures into his own digital darkroom and manipulates them to appear as super punchy, contrasty, and saturated works of art (though much of this is due to his need to print on canvas, where extra saturation, contrast, etc. is needed). I’m often interested in his manipulations, as they tend to not look like anything I personally would have seen (hence his originality) before or after taking the shot. For a frame of reference, he does post both the picture his camera took, before sharing his mind’s edited version.

Being red/green and blue/purple colorblind, I am at a relative disadvantage when it comes to true-to-life photo editing, as what I see is different than what most of the world sees. No, I don’t see in black-and-white (though that would sure make that style of photography easier!), but many times colors appear dull, lack contrast, and are difficult to distinguish from one another. If you have been paying attention to some of my previous posts, many of my edited photographs may appear very punchy and contrasty. Funny thing is to me, those edited pictures appear “normal”. It may not be true-to-life, but the edits I do make to photographs appear to me how I can only wish to see them in real life. 

I figured it may be fun to start sharing some of “My Mind’s Eye” photographs with everyone. Where to some the photographs appear over-edited, TO ME, they appear as I can only guess they would appear to a non-colorblind individual.

So, without further adieu, here’s the first in a (hopefully) continual series of what my mind sees when I take some of my photographs.

This shot is what the camera saw: one of my first captures with the NEX-7 and Nikon 50mm f/1.8 E, taken of a close-by magnolia tree and its ready-to-burst buds.

This is what my mind’s eye saw:

Three cheers to more of these, eh? 🙂 Have a great one guys.