A Visual Love-Letter To 5 Photographers

I'm a renaissance man, Leonardo da Vinci style. Not even kidding. But writing over 200,000 words in the 2 months I've been on Hive may have convinced people I'm 'just a writer.'

But the truth is I'm a very visual person.

I love art. I love design. I love the female form. I love photography. I love nature. I love beauty. And I want to show some love to some of the inspiring photographers I've met.

But rather than just curate or repost some of their wonderful photos, I asked 5 of them if I could retouch one of their shots with my l33t photoshop skills. They said yes, so here are the results.

1. Contrast Is Fishy

Hive account@ikibaru-san shoots a wide variety of subjects, and his most recent shoot of an Arowana fish really caught my attention. I hope you enjoy it.

^{Original Image}

2. Alien Planet

Hive account@johannpiber makes exploratory treks to all sorts of cool geographic locations and captures absolutely stunning scenery. His latest had 'no sunset, no sunrise' but he still found some incredible moments to photograph.

^{Original Image}

3. The Red Mark Of Vintage

Hive account@slobberchops does some really cool 'Urban Exploration' stuff, which is like a whole new world to me, and this old-school record-player he found really spoke to me.

^{Original Image}

4. Warm Sea, Warm Sky

Hive account@adetorrent snaps all sorts of things from beaches, to flowers, to pink hotels. His shot of a tiny moon over a vast ocean inspired me though, so I turned it up a bit.

^{Original Image}

5. Admiral Cardinal

Hive account@traciyork , when she's not being tarot-y or throwing hive-newbies a life-raft, shoots birds, moons, insects, trees, flowers, and whatchamacallits. There was a shot from her archives that I loved, so I did my best to take the elements I liked best about it and elevate them. (This one was tricky because I needed to add more gravel and actually expand the photo.)

^{Original Image}

Here's a peek at the before-and-afters:

And here's a bonus...

Bonus:

I also asked Hive account@jhellenmjgr for a shot, (and I did a fantastic job retouching it), but unfortunately can't post it. Tagging her anyway because you can see some beautiful photos of beautiful models on her profile, well worth a look.

^{Jhellenmjgr's Image That I Wasn't Allowed To Post}

Anyway, that's my photo & retouching fun for now, and a nice break from writing weighty words all week.

To wrap up, do you all know any good photographers on Hive I can check out? Please tag 'em in the comments if you do, I'd love to check them out.