Squares

These interesting windows were on an amazingly designed and colored building in Melbourne, Florida.

Black and White #37

I don't know the names of hardly any flowers. Or plants in general.

I've been trying to figure out how to separate colors in black and white photos.

My new Elements 7 has a lot of neat new features when compared to my previous version (v4), and I've had the desire to sit and play more.

Simply removing the color from a color image will almost always result in an UGLY black and white shot, as will simply turning it from a color photo to a grayscale image.

I've finally found a couple of different processes in Elements that allow me to convert a color shot into a nice, contrasty black and white that I like.

When I first removed the color from this shot, the blossoms and the greenery were nearly the same shade of gray.

But I'm happy with this one, though I'm still learning.

You can see the original outrageous color of these flowers on my other blog today at Picture Post, Sunday, September 27, 2009.

Red Dragonfly

Saw this guy while out and about a week or so ago.

I had never seen a red one, much less the neon red this guy was sporting.

He was in almost constant motion, and I only got two shots of him.

Of the two shots, this was the only one that wasn't blurry from his movement.

The focus is a bit soft, but hey, sometimes you have to take what you can get. He flew way off within seconds of this photo.

Fleur de lis

The rusty fleur de lis on this flower pot holder we have out by our pool have lots of character.

One of those items that you don't notice, but when you take a minute to examine them in a photo, they look kinda neat like that.

I bought a new version of Photoshop Elements, version 7. My previous version was v4, and it didn't have the capability to deal with Nikon RAW images from my new D90.

Elements 7 does, and the difference in features between v4 and v7 is a major upgrade for me.

Elements 7 has many more capabilities of manipulating the Nikon RAW files than the old version, so I'm having a blast using it.

I tried the Nikon Capture NX software but I like the layout and ease of use of Elements more than I do the Nikon Capture software. Plus I tried adjusting the same RAW files in both Elements and in Capture NX and I couldn't tell one from another in the final resulting images. I did this with a number of RAW files and for several hours.

So I just deleted the trial version of Capture NX and bought Elements 7 and Scott Kelby's awesome Elements 7 book. I'm set up now.

Spanish Moss (plus little known fact)

The pharmacy we use is in a business complex where the builder left all the trees possible when building and laying out the parking areas.

Lots of old oaks all around the area and they all have drooping Spanish moss.

The sun was far enough over the other day to get some interesting light through the trees.

I just happened to have my camera with me.

Little Known Fact: Did you know that Spanish moss is in the pineapple family?

I'm not kidding. See for yourself...

That was one of about four or so tidbits of information I still remember from my college botany class. Use it or lose it, and I've lost most of that botany class. Botany facts just don't come up when working with electronics.