The 2 images above are the same photograph of a White-plumed Honeyeater in Royal Park Trin Warren Tam-boore taken on 30 December 2023.

The one of the right has been manipulated by having the tree trunk on the edge removed. At some point in time, every photographer will be tempted to manipulate their photograph for ecstatic reasons. In this case the tree trunk might be seen to be distracting. I experimented using Adobe Photoshop’s generative fill to remove the tree trunk. I was surprise how well it has done. It has even generate rain drops in the area where the tree trunk was.

Personally, I feel that it is my job as a photograph to document the moment and tell a story about where the bird might be. While this is only an experiment, I don’t feel good about publishing a manipulated image.

Nikon Z 9, Nikkor Z 800mm f/6.3 VR S @ 1/800s f/9 ISO450