Tomorrow brings the first day of April, known in many lands as ‘all fools’ day’ or ‘April Fools’ Day’. It’s a strange custom, making fools of people, but there have been memorable instances of mass foolings here in the UK. Our renowned public broadcaster, the BBC once convinced most of the nation that spaghetti grows on trees in Italy. And major newspapers have dedicated complete supplements to fictitious lands, including even invented advertising to make the production look genuine. These days, of course, with the easy application of Photoshop and its many cousins, such trickery is commonplace and needs no specific date for its attempts to recreate new fantasies as if they were real. It sometimes makes viewers wonder whether anything they look at online is actually real.
While my pictures here may well have gone through a minor editing process to make them the best they can be, I haven’t, yet, employed any of the many dodges available to the modern photographer to impress, confuse or confound. Except, I have. Very occasionally, I’ve used false colour to render an otherwise boring image more exciting. But the basic matter of the image has remained as pictured. So far. Who knows, will I employ photo editing software to produce less straightforward images in future? Even I don’t know the answer to that. But, if I ever do, it’ll be simply to improve on an otherwise unsatisfying picture rather than an attempt to fool anyone.
For now, I leave you with a final picture for March, taken on the final day of that month last year, and presented as it was shot. Enjoy!
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Stuart Aken 
Pingback: #Words and #PictureOfTheDay: 31/Mar/22 | In the Net! – Pictures and Stories of Life
Beautiful picture. I haven’t altered photos except for cropping (which is altering them, so I get what you mean).
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I currently use Photoshop’s Lightroom for my digital editing, Lynette. But I have Affinity downloaded, too – but I need time to learn how to use that as it’s a lot more comprehensive. A lot of my pictures, especially as used here, are uncropped, but that’s because my camera produces an ideal 6,000×4,000 image.
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Knowing you has taught me to expect the unexpected. You probably have a photo in mind. Once it gets the seal of approval from Val, “Stuart Aken, you’re a naughty little boy”, you would proceed with your nefarious plan. Please, no pictures of Boris Johnson in a grass skirt. Some of us want lunch to stay down.
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Oh the horror, Tom! Mind you, I wouldn’t be surprised to see such a picture. But not here.
I tend to do these posts in advance, to save time, so I can tell you the text for tomorrow is sober. But I can’t recall which photo I used to accompany it. So, it’ll be a surprise for both of us, I guess!
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A muddy trail, perfect for March! We have leaves now!
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Thanks, Noelle. Just back from a walk in the forest. In the space of 3.4 miles, we had three snow flurries, dark skies, almost cloudless blue skies with bright sunshine, and odd gusts of freezing wind. Sounds about right for March in England! But the hawthorns are now in leaf, and there are some of the hardier spring flowers appearing on the forest floor, too.
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