Today because of several factors, I shot later in the day than usual. Not that it was a problem; in fact the light was soft and nice. It was too cloudy to give much in the way of a late afternoon golden tinge to the light. Once I started processing the shots, it became clear that it was going to be a struggle to make a selection for the daily photo. I liked so many of them. It didn’t seem fair to leave out so many, so nine or ten of the shots ended up in the “2008 – 1st Six Months – Bonus Tracks” gallery and they should be the first group of shots in that gallery. The size of the bonus tracks gallery has grown somewhat larger than I originally imagined.

But the shot I chose for today was in the first group of shots I made this afternoon. There was something about the composition that originally caught my eye; I had not expected to photograph this at all. At the time, I was walking down the path, headed to the Japanese Gardens, thinking about what I wanted to shoot there. My camera was still in my backpack and I was carrying the tripod. As I was walking past the tree, the leaves on the vine and the bark on the tree attracted me. So, I had to shoot it. It was begging me to shoot, taunting me, and mocking me. I only shot two views of this. Both shots appear in the other gallery but enhanced with the posterize edges filter applied. The one in the daily gallery is basically as it was. The colors are muted – I used a gradient map layer, converted the image to black and white, adjusted it to my liking, and then reduced the opacity of the layer to 80% to let a dab of color through.

Tonight’s iTunes selection is from the “Emblems” album by Matt Pond PA. The song is titled “Lily Two” and the whole album is solid. I have no idea why he has the PA at the end of his name. Tomorrow I am going to reach into the past for my iTunes selection, so stay tuned.

Today because of several factors, I shot later in the day than usual. Not that it was a problem; in fact the light was soft and nice. It was too cloudy to give much in the way of a late afternoon golden tinge to the light. Once I started processing the shots, it became clear that it was going to be a struggle to make a selection for the daily photo. I liked so many of them. It didn’t seem fair to leave out so many, so nine or ten of the shots ended up in the “2008 – 1st Six Months – Bonus Tracks” gallery and they should be the first group of shots in that gallery. The size of the bonus tracks gallery has grown somewhat larger than I originally imagined.

But the shot I chose for today was in the first group of shots I made this afternoon. There was something about the composition that originally caught my eye; I had not expected to photograph this at all. At the time, I was walking down the path, headed to the Japanese Gardens, thinking about what I wanted to shoot there. My camera was still in my backpack and I was carrying the tripod. As I was walking past the tree, the leaves on the vine and the bark on the tree attracted me. So, I had to shoot it. It was begging me to shoot, taunting me, and mocking me. I only shot two views of this. Both shots appear in the other gallery but enhanced with the posterize edges filter applied. The one in the daily gallery is basically as it was. The colors are muted – I used a gradient map layer, converted the image to black and white, adjusted it to my liking, and then reduced the opacity of the layer to 80% to let a dab of color through.

Tonight’s iTunes selection is from the “Emblems” album by Matt Pond PA. The song is titled “Lily Two” and the whole album is solid. I have no idea why he has the PA at the end of his name. Tomorrow I am going to reach into the past for my iTunes selection, so stay tuned.