Sunshine, warm day, kids out, and the ice is slowly melting

[alfredo]

from the pond.

[Mira]

1. Both of these - perfect.

Utterly perfect.
I'd like to see a bit of the dark gone at the bottom of the second one, but I think it's a manifestation of my December cropping phase.
Love these photos.

Happy New Year to you Alfredo!

[alfredo]

2. Isn't that a lovely boy? Thanks. I thought about cropping

more out of the second, but I had already cropped as far as I felt comfortable. The shadow of the snag is an important element and I didn't want to lose any more of it by cropping out the dark at the bottom. The dark was caused by the Auto White Balance in GIMP. To get the effect I wanted in the rest of the image, I had to accept what appears to be vignetting on the bottom.

[Mira]

3. I need to go to photo school. Just as soon as my ship comes in that is what I

will do after I unload it.

And then we can really talk.

:)

[alfredo]

4. I probably have more time to read and experiment.

That's one of the benefits to being retired.

There's a lot of good information on the net. I learned something useful here last week. It was about the golden mean. The first one was composed with the golden mean in mind. It helped me understand why some of my compositions worked and some didn't.

[JeffR]

5. Thanks.

These are really lovely.

[alfredo]

6. You're welcomed. The more black and white I do, the

more I like it.

When I was a salesman, one thing we avoided was giving too many options, and too much information. Black and white strips away the color information, and forces the photographer to think in terms of light, dark, and composition. There's no color crutch. You have to rely on fundamentals. I think it will make me a better photographer if I make myself concentrate on what makes a good photograph.

I am hoping that when I go back to color I can look beyond the color to see the photograph.