When, during the late 1950s, I first began to take an interest in photography I soon became aware that other photographers tended to take up a stance in one of two groups. In one group the consensus of opinion was that the production of a photograph was purely a technical or scientific exercise. Members of his group spoke in term of shutter speeds, apertures, focal lengths, chemical formulations for film and print processing, the inverse square law and 'd log e' curves. As far as they were concerned the perfect picture was one that was perfectly exposed and developed irrespective of the subject matter. Those in the other camp struggled with the technicalities, leaving much of it to chance and focusing their attention on the artistic aspect of subject matter and composition.

Fortunately the division between the two schools was sufficiently blurred to accommodate people like myself who recognised the merits of both as being essential elements in the production of a good photograph. However, I take the view that whilst it is possible to learn technical abilities the same is not necessarily true for artistic ability which relies heavily on instinct and, dare I say, God given talent.

Modern cameras with auto focus and auto exposure may take a lot of the guesswork out of photography. But do they? Their complicated menu systems are often confusing and sometimes a lengthy battle with the complexities of them may result in the loss of a fleeting moment that would have offered up a priceless photo. The purist photographer will choose to override the automated systems in order to manually make settings to achieve a desired result. When you melt it all down you are left with just four decisions to make namely: shutter speed , aperture, focus and, perhaps most important of all, framing the picture in the viewfinder.

Modern technology has provided us with computers and photo editing programmes like Photoshop. With these tools we can rescue and enhance badly exposed photos but more than that we are able to interact with the images artistically to bring about all sorts of effects and enhancements. Don't think for one minute that there's anything new in altering images. Before these tools were available all sorts of darkroom skills were brought into play during the print making process and a variety of filters were often fitted in front of the camera lens to produce certain effects. Even after a print had dried following processing, retouching was often carried out with brush, pen and pencil and before the advent of colour photography prints were often hand coloured using transparent oils.

Whether you approach photography scientifically or artistically or a combination of both it all comes down to one end result - the photograph and 'is it a good one'. The answer to that rests purely with the subjective opinion of the beholder.