I have not been the most consistent You Capture participant this year.

But I couldn’t NOT participate this week. The theme was “outside.” And I actually happened to take a few outside pics that I wanted to share.

As with most of the United States, we’ve been in the grip of a pretty long and intense cold snap. It’s been unseasonably cold for weeks. It’s not even Winter yet and we’ve had morning temps in the teens for at least a week now, maybe longer. The image above is the patio at the WV place this past Sunday morning.

I love wet pine needles. To be a bit different, I did some editing to this image. I thought it would be interesting to apply some texture. If you click on the image, you’ll see a larger version. I doubt you’ll even be able to see the texture unless you look at the larger version.

Here’s a version without texture and not cropped.

Do you think the texture adds interest?

The image above is pretty indicative of the weather on that day. Cold, wet and dark. It may not be Winter yet according to the calendar, but it sure feels like Winter has arrived.

The next few shots are examples of why I carry a camera with me all of the time. Unless I forget to put the darn thing back in my purse.

These next few images were all taken with my point-and-shoot on Saturday when I went into town to do some shopping. There’s a craft store on the outskirts of town that features the work of local artisans. One of the owners also likes to collect old stuff. He apparently has a penchant for old tractors.

I did some editing to the picture shown above, too. I wanted the whole picture to have a vintage feel to match the tractor.

Again with the editing. The texture is a bit more apparent in this one. I like the end result. How about you?

That last tractor image is probably my favorite tractor shot of the day.

I think I should go back to this place with my DSLR sometime. Would you like to see more old tractor shots? Or do you think these are boring?

This next shot, taken at the same place, is my favorite.

It’s a koi pond in front of the shop with a fountain. The aforementioned cold snap turned the fountain into what I thought was a very interesting ice sculpture.

It wasn’t shot in black and white. I used PS Elements to remove the color. I softened the focus a bit, too.

It’s my favorite shot of the day, mainly because it is so unique and was so unexpected.

A “normal” person might have seen the fountain and found it interesting. When a person with a photographer’s eye (yes, we do see the world differently) like me sees stuff like this, everything stops. I just HAD to have a picture. In fact, if I hadn’t had my point-and-shoot with me, I would have driven back to the house to get a camera.

I did take a few shots, but this one was the best.

Just because I’m curious as to what other people think, I decided to post the same shot similarly framed, but still in color.

So, which fountain shot do you like better? Color or black and white?

And are my tractor pictures nice? Or over-edited?

If you want to see what other You Capture participants saw OUTSIDE this week, be sure to follow that link and have a gander. You’ll see some amazing stuff.