What's The Difference Between Snapshots and Photographs?

There is no difference*. Here is the difference.

A couple of days ago in my kitchen, this is what I saw when I went to go get breakfast at the crack of dawn. Notice: this looks pretty much exactly how it fell on my eyes, dim light and everything. I said to myself, "Oh, that's pretty..."

(click any photo to enlarge)

Automatic exposure, 50mm

Then I said, "But you know, if I just ..." and I started tweaking the setup and angles, and camera settings and such. Two minutes later, I came up with this:

Manual control, 50mm f/3.2 1/30sec handheld ISO400, white balance on "cloudy" 

*A snapshot is a photograph. But sometimes, when you take a little longer than is required for just a quick "snap," your photographs can come out much, much nicer.  These pictures came off the same camera with the same lens at the same time of day.  The only difference between them was operator activity.

For those so inclined (read: for me but I'll share if you want) here is a 1680x1050 pixel version, ready to be slapped up as a background image on your widescreen monitor. (click through to Photobucket to download)


(One of the guys asked what kind of orchid this is.  It's some kind of Columbine.)