Posted on by ToadMama

ToadMama’s Capture of the Week – 28 January 2010

Remember, one of the reasons for this new blog is to highlight my journey toward becoming a better photographer.

One of the best ways to make sure I do that is to take on assignments. Not paid assignments, unfortunately, creative assignments. Those assignments come by way of Beth at I Should Be Folding Laundry. who came up with the cool idea of You Capture, a weekly photo challenge for her followers. This week’s assignment was color.

I continue to be enthralled with the COLORs in the winter sky.

I did not make many adjustments to this shot.

I happened upon this park the other day as storm clouds were being replaced by blue skies, which made for some good, dramatic COLOR. It just so happened some Snow Geese were still hanging around, too.

I like the contrasts in this shot. Grey sky/clouds vs blue sky and white clouds. The yellow marsh grass adds extra interest, I think.

My girlfriend, Carol, has six cats. So, when I was at her house the other day, I had lots of subjects to experiment with. It was a great exercise for adjusting the ISO, shutter speed and aperture. I really wanted to get shots without the flash.

Lily has amazing green eyes. It was tempting to enhance the green with Elements, but I didn't do it for this post.

Natural COLOR is a bit hard to come by this time of year, at least as far as plants and birds are concerned. I noticed this bit of green on our honeysuckle bush the other day. I honestly don’t know if it has been holding on since last year or if it is new growth. I sort of think it’s holding on.

You have to look hard for natural green at this time of year.

I wanted to post the image first and then the image after I’d applied a dry brush effect, which I really happen to like.

Picture with dry brush effect applied.

I hope you enjoyed the results of my COLOR challenge.

Check out what the other You Capture participants have done.

14 Replies to “ToadMama’s Capture of the Week – 28 January 2010”

  2. So what your saying is because I really like what you did with the last picture that I need to invest in PS Elements? This world of photography is very expensive!! Thanks for sharing your great pictures.

  3. Yes, sorry. I used Elements. If you watch sales, you can get it as cheap as $50. I keep thinking this hobby is expensive, too. I need a better tripod, I need a sensor cleaning kit, I want more lenses…

    Thanks for stopping by!

  5. These are drop dead gorgeous! Judging from these I’d say you don’t even need new assignments, although then again I can’t imagine the skill you could achieve through participating in a few more You Captures! Just gorgeous!

  6. Thanks, TJ. I am trying to get to the point where I can use the manual setting on my camera with confidence and get decent pictures. Having a fully automatic camera has made me lazy. I do appreciate the compliments though.

  7. Amazing. I love the first photo! And the cat is adorable, just want to squeeze that fur ball. I really like how you’ve managed to capture that ‘kitty personality’. Aloof and proud, but still cuddly soft.
    Wonderful job, I can’t wait to see your future entries.

  10. These are all beautiful, but I LOVE the cat photo. The lighting and compositions are great. I would have been tempted to enhance the green eyes too!

Comments are closed.