Books and brighter

I've been reading through a bunch of photography books lately, and had a bit of an epiphany. The photo doesn't have to be about representing what the eye actually saw during the photo shoot. The photo can be a work of art that expresses the photographer's visualization of the scene.

So this photo, for example. It was a shot in light that was dull and flat. Great for shooting a portrait, but not so good for a landscape.

But I have photo editing tools. Here's the drab original, the way I developed it at first. In hindsight, it's actually a little brighter than this.

None the less, in my mind I know the colours are much brighter than that. One of the books encouraged me to push the photos more to express my own visualization. I did a few others in a more 'painterly' just to see what would happen.

Do you have an opinion about the two shots?

One of the books is this one. Amazing! I've just finished it, and will be going back through taking notes. Actually, I want to buy it. There is a ton of good stuff in here for photographers and painters. I think it's going to change how I take photos; it's already changed how I think of them, especially the Lightroom composition thing I hadn't known about.