While I await

The next adventure of toys, or the next adventure with an grand child...I'll just drop a few photos in for you to enjoy before I get started for the day and headed to work.

Drive to work

4 O'Clocks

Sunrise on the ridge

Spidey Web with Dew

Sunrise and crop patterns

Cosmos

And...

Golden Rod in B&W

Off to prep tomatoes for freezing, chores, laundry, and getting ready for a visit from Grandson Dennis.

Tell me should it be color or black and white?

Today I had a few hours to myself so I decided to take a detour to Tainter Hollow after dropping off my recyclables at the Town Shop.

I didn't even make it a mile from home and it began to rain.  I wasn't really worried, I had gone photo hunting before during weather that would alternate between down pours and sunshine.

I looked ahead on the gravel road, a tractor had recently come out of a field and left a mud trail.  I slowed and then stopped.  
Serendipity.
The sun broke out in a warm color.  And I saw this:

The first shot was taken with my elderly Olympus E-420 and a long lens.
The second was taken with my Nikon with the 18-55mm kit lens.

I envisioned both of these shots in black and white.
And so...

Just as I came around the corner I looked up at the clouds again and realized that this was going to be one of those days, when the weather changed rapidly.

I don't normally like telephone poles or electric lines in my photos but again Serendipity hit.  They would lead nicely from my perspective.
And again, I thought this sky would look fantastic in black and white.

The difference here is incredible.  I was able to add a filter that turned the blues to nearly black.
Now the poles had a reason to pull the earth and sky together.

I finally pulled into the small parking area at Tainter Hollow and did some exploring.

Tainter Creek is a rather nice little trout stream and I enjoy seeing the trout flit back and forth and then hide in the shadowed places.

Oh yes, I tried this out in black and white also.

I think it is amazing the difference in tonal value that black and white processing can make in a photo.

I found many more things while exploring today, but I'll just leave with with a parting color shot of one of my favorite spots to park and go walking with my camera.

I had more adventures when I explored Tainter Hollow, Tainter East, Tainter West, and Tainter Rd.
You could say that all those roads named Tainter are confusing.

Not to me, I've been exploring them for years.

Photo processing used, Topaz Detail and Topaz BW Effects 2.  Photos shot in RAW format and processed in AfterShotPro2 by Corel.
Just as a side note, I like the products and dislike renting from Adobe.

Love...

"The world would be a nicer place if everyone had the ability to love as unconditionally as a dog."  ~M.K. Clinton

Lines Lines, Everywhere a Line

So our assignment this week was on leading lines in 256SOG.

I watched as many folks posted beautiful shots of perfect lines.  Many photos involved sidewalks, bricks, buildings, alleys, people, benches, and parks.

I was pretty sure that my lines were not straight nor correct.  But the nature of our area geographically makes for an interesting study of 'lines'.

For our terrain really doesn't have a straight line.  It is all about gentle and steep curves.

I can think of one stretch of road in the 30 miles I travel to work that has an actual straight line.

So there was my dilemma.  How to find a photo that represented leading lines.
I was walking with Dixie in a snowfall when I thought to take this.

The cornrows were curving lines.  The ridge road was curving lines.  The fence was futile attempt at making a straight line.


Then Sunday as I was walking up the driveway to meet my neighbor I glanced over into the woods and was startled to find the following lines in the trees and their shadows.

Now here are lines!

I had to take the shot. 
To me it was just curious and interesting that I had happened upon such perfect lines in our crazy hills.

Rarely do the shadows line up properly like this.
And generally only once during the winter do I get a 'find' like this.

Enjoy my 'lines'.

Today's Photography Is it Real or Art?

I was going to post about the Polar Vortex.  But after 3 days of 'it' with incredibly cold temps and wind chills that were nasty, I'm really not too interested in saying any more than. 
We survived.  Cars started, animals were kept reasonably comfortable, and I hated it because I couldn't go for hikes.

Recently I joined a group of people on Google+ that are B&W photographers.  I thought, cool, I'll learn things!

And I am learning a lot of things.

One of our requirements is to tell the steps of how we 'process' a photo and why we did it that way.

I've heard terms tossed around like ...  Photoshop CC [on line Adobe Creative Cloud], SEP2, which I learned is Silver Efex Pro 2.  This is part of the Nik Collection of plugins for Photoshop.  This is not a Nikon product!
There are others like I use by Topaz.

But I am a basic kind of photographer.  Black and white is my choice in the winter more often than not.  The landscape just sort of asks for it.

These are pretty basic winter shots that I've done mainly because the color of winter asks for it in my own opinion.

Conversion was pretty simple.  I used Topaz BW Effects ... Quick and easy.

For this group I did some more experimenting. 
I took a sunrise photo that was so-so and converted to Black and White.

Foggy morning September sunrise.  Simple edit.  I even used an ancient Adobe Elements 5 for this.  I ran it through the BW Effects from Topaz and viola.  I was done in about 30 seconds.

Okay enough bout that.

Here is some of what I am seeing in some other photographer's shots....
First off.  These shots are incredible.  Excellent.

Maybe far superior than anything I can hope to do.
But when the workflow is listed for some it sounds like a 9 hr job.
 

Luminance masks.
SEP2
Light room -- whichever current version there is.
Photoshop CC
Photoshop Creative Suite
Photomatix Pro
and other programs I've not heard of.

One person discussed his work flow.  The photo was incredible. He used 9 layers of edits in Photoshop CC to the original photo including SEP2 and Light Room.
Yes the shot was fantastic.  Yes, it was artistic.
But at what point do we lose the photo and does it become a 'vision'.

One could argue and I would agree, that a photographer's photo is an expression of art of sorts.
Even I do that.  I can't help it.

This is an age old argument and one that will probably never ever be solved.
Myself, I am learning.  
Maybe I will like what I learn about these super processed photos and then again, I may just stay and do what I like best.

Do it my way.