My philosophy is suitable for my advantageous position of never having to earn money from photography. But one of the great advantages of photography is that option is always there. Indeed, some of the worst photographs I have ever seen have actually been paid for by a local newspaper editor—well, I suspect he must be blind and his dog is doing the selecting—they are that dreadful.
The national newspapers over here—I assume it’s the same in the States—publish some top notch stuff. It’s not unknown for a broadsheet to put an excellent photograph on the front page for its own sake (when there’s no real news about). If I didn’t have the “luxury” of making my living in the computer industry, I like to think I could be a photojournalist.
Taking about such stuff, the St. Neots photograph that you like was post–processed in Paint Shop Pro to add that effect. I did it because it matched, and emphasised, the mood of the image.