Macro Monday - Snow on the Lilac

Snow, in Black & White

A storm blew through on Saturday and dumped a little bit of snow on us which mostly melted by the afternoon.  Since it was so hazy and not much color around, I decided these were best in black and white.

Green Lane Reservoir

Green Lane Reservoir

Driving down the road

Sunday Stills - Black & White or Sepia

This week's Sunday Stills Challenge is Black & White or Sepia.  I'm trying to get pics taken for each week's Sunday Still but it seems sometimes that I just can't get there...Anyway, back to Black & White or Sepia.

I'm not a huge fan of Black & White/Sepia (I really like vivid colors) but I thought this pic really lent itself to monochromatic.  This is Zip spiffed up and braided for the 4H grooming & showmanship requirement.  Something caught his attention while he was waiting in his stall and he posed for me.  I love it.  He's not a classicly pretty or handsome horse but there's something about him.  He's come along way since he stepped off the trailer 2 years ago.

Original

Sepia

Black and White

View other Challenge participants here

Sunday Stills - Black and White

This week's Sunday Stills Challenge is Black and White.  I have to say that I'm not a huge fan of black and white (I love color) but some photos really lend themselves to it.  Here are my choices for this week:

Black and white dog (Bandit) in the grass

Original

Japanese Red Maple in my garden

Original

Birdhouse in my garden.  Chickadees are making a nest in it.

Original

Ok, so I cheated a little on this one. 

I boosted the fade up just a little bit to get a smidgeon of color in the leaves. 

I like it so much better than full black and white.

Original

You can view other Sunday Stills participants here

Wordless Wednesday - BBRRRRR!

Playing with Photo Editing

I tend to us photos that are straight out of the camera with very little or no photo editing. As of late, I've been doing a little experimenting with Picnik. A really cool feature is focal soften where you can focus on a specific object in the shot and blur everything around it. This is a random shot that I took. I really like the focus on the lantern light with the rest of the building blurred.

You can click here to view full size.

Wordless Wednesday - Suburbia

Wordless Wednesday - Evergreen in the Wind

Fence Post

Since I have been taking photos for this blog, I find myself looking at ordinary things with a different eye. Especially from the car window. I purposely take back roads on the way to and from work so that I can appreciate the scenery and the farms. This is an ordinary fence post at a random house at a stop light. It was a gray day that lent itself to black and white. I added some texture in the photo editor and I like the result.