These silos in Hutto are part of what remains of an old Co-Op. Most of the other structures were torn down but I guess the town is preserving these. They sit off of the main highway that passes through town. I chose to shoot this shot from a side road, across a field that I'm sure will one day soon be occupied by new businesses. It was my way of preserving a bit of the country look, what little is left in this small town. Processing info: - Raw conversion in Lightroom, including camera profile selection, lens correction, and minor exposure adjustment. - In Photoshop, Nik Color Efex Indian Summer preset was used to give a slight color pop to the field. - In Photoshop, Silver Efex Antique Plate preset blended in with luminosity mode to adjust contrast and burn edges slightly. Please hit 'L' for large on black! Latest blog entry: Roadside Attractions Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Google Plus I welcome comments and I will be happy to reciprocate by checking out and commenting on your photostream. Group invites are welcome, but I do not participate in Post / Award groups. I reserve the right to delete gaudy, glittery, flashing group invite icons!
I've passed by this battered windmill a number of times. It looks like it has been a long time since it saw any use and it is interesting how the trees seem to be reaching up and tearing it down. Nature's reclamation process at work. I knew I wanted to do some dramatic post processing with the scene. With the overcast sky providing a gloomy backdrop on this day, I stopped to get a shot. With my 70-200mm lens, I was able to get the shot from my car (talk about drive-by shooting!) Processing info: - Raw conversion in Lightroom, including camera profile selection, lens correction, and minor exposure adjustment. - In Photoshop, Silver Efex Antique Plate preset blended in with luminosity mode to adjust contrast and burn edges. - In Lightroom, a split tone effect was applied. Please hit 'L' for large on black! Latest blog entry: Roadside Attractions Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Google Plus I welcome comments and I will be happy to reciprocate by checking out and commenting on your photostream. Group invites are welcome, but I do not participate in Post / Award groups. I reserve the right to delete gaudy, glittery, flashing group invite icons!
I pass by this thicket of trees daily on my way to work. For the past year, I've thought that I should stop and take a picture. I'm not sure why. It caught my eye last winter and I saw "something" in this scene. Maybe it's that this dense patch of trees is just outside of a subdivision and it's a bit of nature not yet taken over by urban sprawl. Interesting, but I didn't make a point to stop. A year later, it was a gloomy overcast day and I passed by this place as I so often do. This time, I decided to stop. I parked my car on a side street and walked across the wide street that separates this area from a subdivision. I walked along the bordering sidewalk until I found just the right outer row of trees. I took the shot and looked at my LCD. On this dreary day, it didn't look like much. Grey, dull, boring...what was I doing here? The image sat on my drive for a few weeks until I finally decided to do something with it or delete it. It was a challenge. I initially thought I'd go black and white. No, that just didn't work. I kept what little color there was and mostly played with the contrast and detail. It's a busy image and keeping the right balance of contrast and details is tough. Too much and it hurts the eyes. Too little and it looks muddy. I tried a few things and slept on it. In the morning, I came up with something I liked. Processing info: - Raw conversion in Lightroom, including camera profile selection, lens correction, and minor exposure adjustment. - White point adjustment with Level layer in Photoshop. - General contrast adjustment with Curve layer in Photoshop. - Nik Color Efex Pro Contrast used to adjust color cast and fine contrast. - Nik Silver Efex used to adjust constrast and structure, as well as darken outer edges. The Pinhole preset was used to create a layer that was blended in Luminosity mode. - Topaz Labs Detail was used to soften the harsh details. This allowed me to keep contrast high without overemphasizing the fine textures in the scene. Please hit 'L' for large on black! Latest blog entry: X100 Sticking Aperture Disease Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Google Plus I welcome comments and I will be happy to reciprocate by checking out and commenting on your photostream. Group invites are welcome, but I do not participate in Post / Award groups. I reserve the right to delete gaudy, glittery, flashing group invite icons!
