I often have to remind myself that photography is not a science, it’s an art. Actually, I have to remind myself of this a lot.

I guess I’m one of these weird people that has both an artistic and and a technical side to my brain. A lot of the time, they don’t get along. One side is always trying to wrest control from the other, and I am constantly having to keep one or the other in check. And it can be a struggle sometimes.

Take the photos below, for instance. Last May, I shot my nephew’s wedding. I was in the middle of my transition from Olympus to Nikon (I blogged about that here), so LaDonna and I were using both brands of equipment. I was shooting with the Nikon, because I was more familiar with it, but I was still learning about how to use the Nikon flash system and how to set it up properly. Because of that, many of the indoor shots that I took that day weren’t that up to my usual standards.

At least that’s what my technical side told me. Looking at them in the camera, I was pretty disgusted with several of them, including these two. But once I got home, I allowed my artistic side to take over and see what could be done with them. Converting them to black and white and accentuating the grain helps these photos tell a story. Both of them were nervous that day, a little bit frazzled and not quite themselves. I think these photos help bring that out.

So while I would probably never enter these photos into any kind of contest (there goes my technical side, asserting itself again), I’m glad that my artistic side kept me from hitting the “trash” button when I was looking at them that day. Enjoy.