I was flipping through my photos on my phone today and flagging ones that I love. When I came across a photo that I took last year of my daughter and the cat, side by side, peering out the window I was inspired to play around with it a bit. My computer bit the dust last month, sadly, and I have not really played around too much since with making composites or edits of my pictures. But today I decided to play around with this image in photo shop on my phone and I am pretty happy with the results.

I really started dabbling in digital editing my photos during the pandemic. I would take lots of pictures in my yard and especially in the spring went wild taking pictures of all the new growth and blooms. I had so many photos I loved but as I usually like my photos to tell a story or feature people, I had to find a way to make these photographs do just that. Enter my journey into composite photography. My kids often feature in these photographs and get a kick out of seeing themselves in them when I enter them in art shows. In fact, the very first honorable mention I earned was from one of these composites.

One of my favorites Leif in Lilacs even won a Best in Show ribbon at the Iosco County Fair last summer. I think people really are drawn to the composite photos because they tell a story and I have much more control over finding and highlighting the narrative when I am combining and editing my original photos.

Do you digitally manipulate your photographs to create something new?