Historians or artists?

I mentioned last time that photographers are historians. On January 31st 2008 the Riverdance ran aground near Cleveleys. There must be thousands of people who have their bit of history like the photo on the left. There are also thousands who managed to get better photographs because they were taken when the weather was better. When I managed to get there the weather was quite dull. You may remember that it started in an almost upright position then started to list until it ended up in this position.

There really were some very good photos taken mostly because the light was better and also because some action was taking place. The picture on the right is the same photo. I have added a bit more colour and a sunset. I was thinking of painting 'help' on the hull or maybe 'Michael was here' but I didn't think that would add to the artistic merit of the photo. The historical truth has already been distorted (although the sun would set in roughly that direction) but photos are produced for artistic merit too.

Happy snapping