Infra-red tree

If you can tear yourself away from the desirable ambience of the Ship Inn at Levington,

there's a pleasant walk along the shore of the Stour to Harkstead. With a dramatic sky

looming, this lone tree lured me into a IR shot (the Mrs thinks I've faked the sky - I haven't).

This opened up an interesting argument about what constitutes a fake in photography. Do the

great photographers - who often don't do their own printing - get accused of fakery when

they 'dodge and burn' to get the image they want? Lartigues made wonderfully eccentric

pictures without resorting to fakery, and Doisneau’s famous street kiss was staged a number

of times before he was happy with the result. It has the intended look of spontaneity about it,

but it’s hardly a fake in our terms. The famous image of soldiers raising the US flag on Mt

Suribachi on Iwo Jima was re-enacted (ie. faked) for the camera, as was the meeting of the

Russian and US troops on the Elbe in 1945. We know that for the sake of the storytelling,

facts often get overlooked by the need for impact, but when an entire movie is predicated on

the lie that it was an American submarine that captured an enigma machine in WW2 (in

‘U571’), who knows when the fakery and the misinformation will stop. For the record, this

picture is 100% genuine!

If you can tear yourself away from the desirable ambience of the Ship Inn at Levington, there's

a pleasant walk along the shore of the Stour to Harkstead. With a dramatic sky looming, this

lone tree lured me into a IR shot (the Mrs thinks I've faked the sky - I haven't). This opened up

an interesting argument about what constitutes a fake in photography. Do the great

photographers - who often don't do their own printing - get accused of fakery when they 'dodge

and burn' to get the image they want? Lartigues made wonderfully eccentric pictures without

resorting to fakery, and Doisneau’s famous street kiss was staged a number of times before he

was happy with the result. It has the intended look of spontaneity about it, but it’s hardly a fake

in our terms. The famous image of soldiers raising the US flag on Mt Suribachi on Iwo Jima was

re-enacted (ie. faked) for the camera, as was the meeting of the Russian and US troops on

the Elbe in 1945. We know that for the sake of the storytelling, facts often get overlooked by

the need for impact, but when an entire movie is predicated on the lie that it was an American

submarine that captured an enigma machine in WW2 (in ‘U571’), who knows when the fakery

and the misinformation will stop. For the record, this picture is 100% genuine!