I used to stridently maintain I never took photos for art's sake. I have always maintained that I snap thousands of photos primarily as a means to document my life. I like being able to see the big and the little of existence. A particular meal I enjoyed or the facade of a foreign hotel seemed worthy of saving.
Sigh. I guess I can contain multitudes. (I'd add the entire Walt Whitman quote, if I could remember it.) Why not use editing software to pursue an emotion?
For example, I find it strange that one may wish to add a non-existent lens flair for added authenticity.
We have all been conditioned by the images we've seen but it is easy to modify a digital file. Describe an era, emotion, or adjective and an image can be made to match. I think I will play around with images as well as making them for the sole utilitarian task of documentation. Am I too old to take up graphic-arts training?