Thoughts: Reality is boring

Reality is boring. It might be controversial but that's the way it is. Let's face it. It can be beautiful (and often is!), I don't deny it, but at the same time we're so used to it that in many cases we, photographers, have to cheat to make it more appealing to the viewers. Otherwise many (or even majority!) of our photos would be mediocre, boring, lifeless.

For that reason we shoot long exposure (or ultra fast exposure) like in the image above to show motion of water and thus to make the image more dynamic than the scene really was. Moreover we use shallow depth of field to blur background and isolate the subject which wasn't really isolated, we use ultra wide angle lenses to show more than eye can see, use black & white treatment to add more drama and mood to otherwise fairly calm scene. Also for that very reason we use polarizing filters to boost colors, or increase saturation in post. For the same reason we photograph subjects from different perspective than we see normally: flowers from the ground level, mountains from above clouds level and boats from underwater.

Technical details:
Camera: Canon 5D MK II
Lens: Canon 24-105 f/4 L IS USM
Focal length: 24 mm
Aperture: f/13.0
Exposure time: 4 s ("middle" exposure)
ISO: 100
Number of exposures: 7
E.V. Step: 1 EV
Flash used: no
Tripod: yes
Filters: ND8 neutral density filter
Software: Magic Lantern 2.3, Photomatix Pro 4.2.7 (Details Enhancer), Lightroom 5.0, Photoshop CC