I converted some of the flower photos I took at the Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge. I was aiming for something a little different, and I think I got that with this photo. I used Nik Software’s Silver Efex Pro and got rid of some of the structure, but not all of it. I wanted some detail delineated, but nothing that would overwhelm.
Tag Archives: bw
Common Sunflower in Monochrome
Comments Off on Common Sunflower in Monochrome
Filed under Black & White, Brazoria NWR, flowers, Photography, Texas, Wildlife Refuge
More Monochrome Conversions
Heaven knows I have plenty to do around my home (cleaning, primarily, and trying to study Visual Basic….without much success). What I generally end up doing on a weekend is work with my photos on the computer and then post them in my blogs because I am trying to make up for the dearth of posts during the work week.
I was converting some of my Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge photos into black & white when I realized that I had not done this at all to any of the photos I’d taken during my trips to London and Ireland back in 2011. So, this morning has been spent with conversions and edit tweaking here and there. Below are the results. Some photos lend themselves quite well to monochromatic conversions, and others are best left alone. I have noticed that the black & white photos have a better definition of light, dark, shadow, and texture. I think sometimes the nature of color keeps the eye from noticing these other details.
What do you think?
The Thames and Parliament as viewed from the London Eye
The view from Jubilee Bridge in London
Connemara “ponies”
Dunluce Castle, Northern Ireland
Poulnabrone Dolmen, The Burren
Proleek Dolmen, Northern Ireland – this portal tomb is located on a golf course behind a lovely resort.
Calla Lily
Rulers of The Rockpile
Ladies View, a stop en route to the Gap of Dunloe
Connemara Mountain scene
Giant’s Causeway, Northern Ireland
A different time of day and view of Dunluce Castle, Northern Ireland
Celtic cross headstone detail
Proleek Dolmen
Becky and the Proleek Dolmen (that top stone is estimated at 11 tonnes).
Comments Off on More Monochrome Conversions
Filed under Black & White, Ireland, London, Photography, Travel
Washington Vacation 2012 In Monochrome
The other night, I upgraded to the most current version of Nik Software’s Silver Efex Pro 2. LOVE this conversion plug-in. My aim was to take selected photos from my recent Washington vacation (April 2012) and convert them to black and white.
This software has a lot of very cool presets of which I made ample use, then tweaked here and there with my own changes. One of the things that popped out immediately is how much black & white delineates texture, light, dark, shadow, and detail. I saw things that I never noticed with the color images. This is especially apparent with photos that have lots of clouds.
I’m also pleased with my black and white conversions of people and pet photos.
Comments Off on Washington Vacation 2012 In Monochrome
Filed under Black & White, family, Photography, Travel, Washington State
Puny
I finished reading one of the photo blogs I follow titled “In The Pink”. My immediate thought was to create a short post titled “In The Pink…..I Don’t Think”. Or maybe “In The Pink….Not Really”. In the end, I came up with the original title you see here.
For the past two weeks, I have been down and out for the count with a nasty little bug that started with three days of scratchy throat, followed by what felt like a full-blown cold, followed by a return of the sore throat, altered hearing, and completely no sense of taste except for differentiation between sweet, sour, and salty. If you blindfolded me and then fed me a piece of chicken, it would be the same as if you were feeding me a piece of alligator….or ostrich….or tofu….well, OK, I would figure that one out just from the mouth-feel.
Anyway, I’ve not been up to par, but I am incrementally improving, which is a good thing since I will be on a plane to Washington State next week, visiting Seattle, Mt. Rainier, the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival, and celebrating my and my brother-in-law’s birthdays in eastern Washington.
I like to try and post something once a week, and this was pretty much all I could come up with. Dad took this shot of me when I was, oh, maybe two or three years old, zonked out on the swing set in our postage-stamp back yard in Montana. I’ve been in a state of “zonked-outedness” now for two weeks and am ready to wake up…..but, well, not tonight; I’ve taken my Nyquil (which still tastes bad even when I don’t have any taste buds).
Hope all of you out there are in a better frame of health.
Filed under Black & White, Humor, Photography
Black & White
I’ve created an album on my website (via SmugMug) specifically for monochrome (mainly black & white) photos.
This photo is titled: Stormy Scene at Pima Point, Grand Canyon National Park, AZ.
That day at the park was amazing, with the weather changing every three hours from snow flurries to snow storm to clear sunny skies with fluffy white clouds to dramatic frowning stormclouds and rain showers in the distance. I felt really lucky to be standing in that spot at that time….and I was the only photographer there! Everybody else had high-tailed it back to the shuttle bus to try and make it to Hermit’s Rest before the storm hit.
Filed under Black & White, Grand Canyon National Park, Photography, South Rim
Family Portraits (Through The Years)
My father was a photographer when we lived in Montana (actually, he had always been a photographer, but the scenery of Montana really brought out his talent). He specialized in black & white landscapes and shot portraits of our family and other families (and got paid for it). He occasionally sold images to the local newspaper. He turned one of the rooms in the basement of our Montana home into a darkroom and put his Mamiya twin lens reflex camera to wonderful use.
Love of photography is genetic in our family, and I inherited my love of the medium from him. Our homes were always filled with framed landscape and family images. My home is filled with photographs, as is my sister’s home; framed images on every wall and every flat space (tables, mantles, bookcases, desks, windowsills). My sister, mother, and I are so very thankful Dad took alot of pictures while we were growing up, because it’s wonderful to be able to look at a photograph and go back in time to that one particular moment. I may forget what I had for breakfast the day before, but I remember what was going on when I look at old photographs of me (well, ok, I don’t remember what was going on in my baby and toddler photos, but Mom fills me in on the details).
I don’t recall what exactly I was looking for as I perused the box of photo CDs and DVDs, but I pulled out a large number of old family photos I’d scanned from negatives and prints. All taken by Dad, and all pretty cute.
These two are “pre-Becky”
I’m in this photo – you just can’t see me 😉
See? I actually am was a real blonde (once)
Yes, I went through a red-hair phase; it worked well during my Renfaire days.
Did your family take alot of pictures? Do you take alot of pictures of your family? If you don’t, then you should; your family (and their families) will appreciate it.
Filed under Black & White, family, Photography, Portraits
Where The Trails Take You Photography 
You must be logged in to post a comment.