It's only cheating if you believe there is some magical rule about not doing it, I guess. These results are beautiful. I frequently post-process my pictures, for this comm and elsewhere, to bring out some element, or liven them up. Where does one draw the line? I virtually always straighten my horizons (because apparently I see crookedly or something and can't take a level picture to save my life). I crop. I push contrast and brightness a lot of the time because the world I live in is often bereft of direct sunlight.

I correct color because my camera sees blues and purples very differently than my eyes do.

Then there's the sheer art of just messing with the potential in a photo: solarizing it down to its structural essence, shoving the saturation way up just for fun.

I have an inexpensive point and shoot camera that doesn't do within its little box body all the things I wish it could. So I do those things outside its body.

Heh. Long answer! Anyway, isn't it interesting how beautiful things which are inherently rather ugly can become in black and white? Both the scaffolding and the rotted timbers are wonderful.