Thursday, February 26, 2015

Parting Shots

We are going away for a bit of a winter holiday, not to a sunny spot but another wintry place. It's okay. I am looking forward to meeting with extended family and doing a bit of snowshoeing. Well ... I will snowshoe if my one bad foot, two bad knees, and one bad hip permit it. I managed last winter, so, hopefully, I will still be up to it.

In any case, this will be the last post for awhile, and I will leave you with some more pics from our local park. I took these on the same semi mild day as the edge of the ice pics in the previous post.


I am not too good and spotting either closeup or graphical shots as my vision tends to be oriented toward the distance. But I am trying to do a bit better, even though it doesn't come naturally. In these two shots, above and below I tried to isolate branches against the background.

In the photo above, I was able to brighten the background to white to get this minimalist shot. It shows that even in our present deep freeze, the buds are there waiting for spring.

There is some frost on the tentacles that seem to be drooping forlornly in the next photo.


I also shot the building below with the snowy trees in front. I processed it for effect in both colour and mono. When I look at the two together, I prefer the mono version by a bit, but I like them both fine on their own. I generally hesitate to show both colour and mono versions together in order to avoid needless comparisons, but I will do it in this case. Feel free to add your opinion as I am already changing my mind over which I prefer. I think it matters at what size we view photos, and when I work with them, I am obviously viewing larger. If you click you can see them somewhat larger, but I do keep my blog photos at both minimal size and quality, and I think the mono one, especially, works better larger.



So, that's it for a week or two or more. We are not sure how long we will be gone, and once home it may take awhile to get back into blogger mode.

14 comments:

Mara said...

Love the top photo and could actually imagine that one on my wall!

Have a great time with family. See you in a few weeks!

Linda Kay said...

Lovely frosty pictures, John. Have a great time snowshoeing, and have the ibuprofen handy!

Donna said...

These are really pretty!
Take care and try to enjoy yourself!
hughugs

TexWisGirl said...

ooh, i like the color one. enjoy your wintery destination!

Mage said...

We will see you when we see you. I like the color version as the drama of the contrast works well. Have a great trip.

Hilary said...

I like that first branch. I first viewed it in Feedly where the background is white.. so it really didn't appear to have a frame at all. It stood out so nicely. And I prefer the image with colour.. it really pops.

Enjoy your time away. If you're going to be up here, let me know. I'll be around until later in the week but then I'm off to my old haunts for a while.

troutbirder said...

My sympathy. We have problems with the same bodily parts......

Pearl said...

gosh to somewhere else cold? still better than all the time at home like me.

(best capcha ever btw)

EG CameraGirl said...

Have a great time away! It's not necessary to go to a sunny place to have fun. :)

Ginnie said...

Hope y'all have a wonderful time but don't forget to come back. You will be missed.

Tabor said...

Really beautiful photos...all of them. Have a safe and enjoyable trip. We will all be here when you get back.

Shammickite said...

Enjoy your time off.... and take lots of nice piccies. Stay warm, if possible.

MARY G said...

I like the colour shot and the skeletal twiggy hand.
Snowshoes = hot pads or hot bath that evening. Worth it, though.
Warmer weather has to be on the way. Enjoy your holiday and I hope the snow crusts up for you.

KGMom said...

Ah--that's why you haven't been hanging around the blog world.