Faking it.

To fiddle or not to fiddle.

Coming to the end of an amazing holiday can be very sad. Loving photography changes that.

The week in Tanzania was awesome. Approaching the last day generated a mixture of longing for the holiday to never end, and anticipation for the first proper look at all those photos.

During the week I had looked at almost none of them. On return, it took some time to sort all 3,250 photos taken during that incredible week.

With some I was really pleased. Some of the scenery shots I love…

and the wildlife presented endless opportunities…

And so, feeling rather pleased with myself, I eagerly posted many of my favourites to Flickr, thinking that some would trigger a lot of feedback. My ego was not to be so easily pleased. Little interest was generated.

Somewhat disgruntled, I tried experimenting. ‘If they don’t like my normal photos, I’ll make one up’.

After spending a couple of minutes ‘gluing’ elephants to a scenery photo, I created something obviously faked. It instantly went viral.

My most popular photo ever; a complete fake. Ego withered, I tried a second attempt.

This one, too, went viral.

It’s a funny old world. I think I’ll try another one…

Fake? Nah….

And they say that the camera never lies.