September dryness

Approaching mid September in Sonoma County, California. No clouds (other than fog), and no rain for months. The California Live Oak thrives during these long, dry summers. They are everywhere along the last 15 miles of my commute home. I tend to take them for granted, but when there’s nothing else presenting itself along the way, they’re almost always worth taking the time for a few shots.

Oaks and hills

Canon G11 in the fields of the oak.

Backyard impressionism

We’re having a lazy weekend–no driving, no have tos. After cleaning up the patio, Maggie did some watering and I thought, “Chasing Reflections.” Here are two shots of reflections off the wet concrete I liked enough to post.

Petaluma Bridge

Petaluma Bridge

Both shots are straight from the camera (I did boost the contrast a tiny bit on the top image, and both got the usual “Smart Sharpen” of 50% at 0.4 pixels). Other than that, no Photoshop trickery applied.

Canon G11 chasing reflections.

Weekend smoke and mirrors

Every Photoshop geek knows this, but for those who don’t–sometimes a tiny bit of tweaking can change the “mood” of an image. This is a late afternoon shot of the old walnut tree in my back yard as the camera captured it:

Old walnut tree

Here’s the same frame rendered in black and white:

Old walnut tree black and white

And this one is the B&W version with a warming “film” filter applied:

Old walnut tree filtered

I like #3 the best, but I’m a sucker for that particular color combination.

Canon G11 supplying the pixels.