I'll say upfront that I realize that this post could be taken as a case of "pot calling kettle black"...but that's not my intention...it just comes from the amazement that I felt when I read on the Times' website that people were paying to have themselves airbrushed in their holiday pictures.

Because...although I fall back on Photoshop to try and rectify the color (as my photos never seem to accurately reflect the actual hue of the clothes) or to increase the exposure (in the hope of getting some detail from a sea of black) of the photos that I take and use here...I don't see the point in trying to make myself look thinner or giving myself bigger boobs...as Popeye said, "I y'am what I y'am". The thought of doing that (and a whole lot more) for vacation pictures just seems exhausting...and a little depressing.

And...nagging away in the back of my mind...is the fact that the pleasure that comes from looking at old photos...my grandmother surrounded by dalmatians on the beach...Mr. Heb and I in Paris...dumb shots of animals at the zoo...would be altered if I knew that everything had been passed through some kind of "beauty filter". Though we increasingly publicize all aspects of our life...on Twitter, or Facebook, or countless other sites...we shouldn't forget that the life that we're living is ours...it's real...and it's the only one we've got.