I see photography (as I allow myself to reduce it to the basic form of the word), as taking the image. While it's true that you don't necessarily need to spend hours in photoshop, it does make your image stand out from the crowd. I see post production as some sort of trademark, something people see and know "Ah, that's that photographers work".

(I) See it as the two sides of a coin. On one side you have the art that is photography in its purest form, while on the other side having the art of making it yours through the wonderful tools photoshop has to offer.

I would love it if you did a more in-depth post about your editing technique, as I do find it very interesting :)