Outdoors/Monochrome

It may look like this is B&W, but it ain't. We had a grey morning lit by a desultory sun with a half-hearted fall of wet snow.

Camera: Canon EOS T3, LensBaby Muse, single glass optic Processing: PSE, basic adjustments

COLD: Snow drifts past bare winter trees.

We had the first significant snowstorm last night. The simple design presented by these branches sticking out of the snow caught my eye. The photo is so stark that it doesn't give filters a lot to work with; but Charcoal did render it down into a few strokes, like Japanese brushwork.

It was a raw, cold, drizzly day. I was intriged by the raindrops clinging to the branches of this thorny tree that borders the parking lot at my office building. (The parking lot is on surveillance video--I just kow the security guards wonder what on earth I'm doingas I wander around my car, trying to be unobtrusive.) I'm not yet really comfortable with the settings on the new camera; so the focus on the original is pretty soft. Accented Edges managed to bring out the texture in the branch, the light in the raindrop and the threatening points in the thorns.

This vinca vine jumped the gun a little and has started to turn green. It didn't count on the vagaries of New England weather. Today's snow was just a dusting, but but tomorrow morning, this should be buried under over a foot of snow. The Sponge filter helped elicit the tenuous sense of hope held forth by this fragile spray of green.

The Carving effect combined with the Texturizer filter produced something that looks like a print on linen.

When I left work today, a sulky snow was falling. It made for an intriguing design when the trees outside were viewed through the sleet-splattered windshield.

It's still not a great image...but after applying the Water Paper filter, it might be decent as a background.

Well, this one didn't turn out the way I thought it would. We've finally had a thaw, so there's liquid water on the streets. It's such a change to see puddles glistening and shifting in the wind. I took a picture of branches reflected in a puddle, but it didn't come out the way I saw it.

I got a few zoomed in shots of the moon with my little point-and-shoot, but they lacked interest. Combine with the original and apply the Blue Tint effect, and there's a certain element of mystery.

As I was leaving work today, the moon was rising and the sun was setting. Here's the moon caught in the branches of an evening lit tree.

This was done using a technique developed by Corey Barker. Make a copy of the layer (Control-J.) Then apply Glowing Edges. Adjust it so the edges are clearly defined. Click OK, then Control-I to invert. Use the eraser tool at different levels of opacity to paint back some of the original photo. It produces a nice watercolor sketch effect.

Yesterday, temperatures soared into the 40s. Liquid water appeared in puddles on the streets. This morning, I stepped outside into a world of birdsong. I know better than to get my hopes up--a New England winter will always break your heart, because it will never end when you think it should. But I couldn't help but be uplifted by the color of the sky--a shade darker than the usual pale blue of winter.