04-04-2016, 05:26 PM
I don't know how I feel about the last APOD (April 4th). When it comes to natural beauty, I appreciate only all-natural. Anything synthetic done (outside of basic brightness adjustments) ruins potentially beautiful photos for me. I think of it akin to someone graffiti-ing their own artwork all over a National Park: its already naturally beautiful, so any 'enhancements' only deface that beauty. That photo is a combination of the best aurora photo from that location and the best waterfall photo from that same location. So I would consider that in some gray area in between natural and not. I realize the conditions were extremely difficult to the point the photo may not have existed at all, so I do appreciate it exists. I just won't add it to my aurora wallpaper collection.