Old pictures, new conversions

I guess it's better to post an old, off topic picture than none at all, right? I was playing with Jess's color pop and dark chocolate conversions, (Thanks, Jess!) and thought I would post a couple on here. Let me know what you think! Thanks for looking!

Just for fun

Nothing special about this pic - just thought it was kind of funny when I was out driving around looking for an interesting shot for this week's theme, I saw this little bit of graffiti on an overpass. It kind of "spoke" to me, LOL. I swear, I haven't painted my name on an overpass in years! :)

Road Closed

I was off work today (Yay for Presidents' Day!), so I drove around looking for something interesting to photograph. Unfortunately, there wasn't much to find! :) I drove down a dirt road just outside of town, and came across this. Settings were AV mode, f/8.0, ss 1/200, ISO 100. I forgot to change my WB, (it was on Tungsten) and all my pics were had a yucky blue cast to them, so I converted this in PSE4. CC please - thanks for looking!

Our piano, 5 ways

Here's my last take on 1 subject, 5 ways. All were taken in AV mode with 50mm lens, ISO 1600, between f2.5 and f3.2, with shutterspeeds between 1/60 and 1/160. I applied both a b&w conversion and midnight sepia on the last 2 shots of the feet, which one do you like better?

(I cloned out the scuff marks on the piano on the b&w, but not the midnight sepia.) HHCC please!!! Thanks for looking!

1 object, 5 ways, part 2

These did not turn out at all like I had planned! I've been super busy at work, getting home later than usual, and the lighting for these was terrible! The only one that I think is even halfway interesting is the 2nd one. Settings were all AV mode, various fstops and shutterspeeds, all at ISO 1600, with 50mm lens, auto white balance. I really have to start shooting in RAW, my white balance is all messed up! Oh, well, tomorrow's another day! CC welcome. Thanks for looking!

1 object, 5 ways

This is really going to be a challenge for me. I totally didn't understand the theme - I had another subject in mind, and I was going to post one picture every day, but Mogley clarified it yesterday. These are some pictures I took a couple of weeks ago for a friend. This is a huge drilling rig that is being built a couple of towns over, and my friend, who is the banker for the project, wanted some pictures before it was moved out to West Texas. It was at midday (awful sun!) with various settings and lenses. CC Please! Thanks!

Wildflower

I have been working late the last couple of days, so I haven't been able to go out and shoot. This is a picture from last fall. The in-camera crop was terrible, so I cropped it a little more in PSE4. What do you think? Settings were AV mode, f5.6, ss 1/1000, ISO 200, 300mm focal length. HHCC Please!

Two more gerber daisies

Thanks for everyone's comments yesterday - I really appreciate them. Most people commented that they thought the black was too overpowering in the photo. Here are a couple of other shots from the same day - I actualy did shoot the red flower against my white foam board reflector - but my WB was all wrong, (I'm too chicken to shoot in RAW). The white background was a really ugly gray. I played with it a little in PSE4, and used my paint bucket tool to turn the gray to white. Is there a better way to do this? The second picture was a lighter color flower against the black velvet again. My highlights were kind of blown out, so I adjusted them, but I'm not sure it was enough.

Both photos were shot in AV mode f8.0, 400 ISO, 50mm lens. CC please! Any comments or suggestions are appreciated! Thanks!

Botanical

Sports was a fun week, but I was lazy and posted losts of old pictures! Now I'll actually have to go out and shoot to stay on topic! :) This was a shot from a week ago with this week's topic in mind. I set it up according to instructions in Scott Kelby's "Digital Photography Book", I went out and bought a yard of black velvet and a couple of fresh stems, went outside on an overcast day and propped everything up next to the trampoline, and played around. I tried different settings with different lenses, and this turned out to be one of the better ones. In most of them, the color seemed really washed out. I think the color's OK in this one, but it seems a little flat. The image is SOOC - I started to clone out the little hole in one of the top petals, but I decided to leave it alone. Settings were AV mode, f5.6, ss 1/125, ISO 400, 75-300mm lens, 155mm focal length. HHCC Please!!! Thanks!

Take me out to the ballgame...

Here's a few pics from last baseball season. We live and breathe baseball around my house! The first 2 are game shots, the last one is DS with his cool 3rd baseman shades on! I had just gotten my camera, and I was still shooting in "Sports" mode. ISO was 400, 75-300mm lens. Cropped in PSE4. As always, CC appreciated. Thanks for looking!

More football

Sorry about how I keep posting older pictures, but most of my sports pictures were taken back in the summer and fall when baseball and football were going on. These are a couple of shots of one of Ryan's teammates that was injured. They're a little different than my usual football shots and I'd love to get some HHCC on these. Settings on the first one were AV mode, f18, ss 1/100, ISO 200, 75-300mm lens, focal length 170mm. On the second, settings were the same except ss was 1/30 (it's a little soft) and focal length was 300mm. Cropped and defogged in PSE4. Thanks for looking!