Years of 'Can Do It' attitude and experience

"Photography is about more
than pretty pictures."

Sometimes a shot simply doesn't come easy. For some people, you aim a camera and it is what it is, for others, its a more interesting challenge to decide what it is one wants it to be and figure out how to pull it off. For example...

capturing laser beams on film can be tricky

While the aparatus is visible, the beam of light...You cannot see it, poloroid film cannot test it, most films no matter what you do cannot capture it, yet you must photograph it.

To see a laser beam is to put something in its path, smoke and dry ice were off limits but lens cloth was ok, a lens cloth put in its path created a dot, move that dot and you have a line, it could be done...and then there was the spectral range of the lasers, one table top went from IR to visible to UV...film had its limitations, lenses have their limitations, it took a bit of thought in advance to pull it off but the images from this shoot are straight from the camera. Its all about the careful control of light, broken into its components, exposed individually onto film while standing in a pitch dark room, dressed in black, with the shutter open the entire time painting light by moving a dot with a repeating tune to measure speed, and then strobing to make the aparatus appear. Go to images.

Would it be more easily faked in photoshop these days? Yes. But...if you want to know how this photographer thinks, how this photographer see's time and light...or want to know that its not just about pretty pictures, the above should tell you something.

With that mindset, Photoshop only adds to the fun & possibilities

While its often better to get the shot right to begin with, sometimes its not feasible or realistic or what is wanted. With photoshop many miracles are possible when you think about it right.