Week 49 - Vision: Look Back

(339/365) We need to look back to see how far we've come. If you were Captain Ahab, which skill/week would be your whale?

When I look back on this year's #Dogwood52 Challenge, I think my two weakest weeks were Week 2 - Composition: Color Harmony (since there isn't much color in Wisconsin in January and because I'm not a fan of saturated color in my images) and Week 6 - Alternating Rhythms (I love the photo of Piper running through the fresh snow and the shadows cast by the bare trees, but I don't think that this picture really met the challenge). So I looked way back to this photo taken on trip to San Sebastián/Donostia, Spain. I love the symmetry and and the colors of this building in the Constitución Plaza. The grey and yellow are opposites on the color wheel and thus fulfill Week 2's challenge, while the repetition of numbered windows, open and closed shutters, and wrought iron railings against the white washed walls creates a pleasing alternating rhythm...Though, if I'm honest, I really chose this photo because it reminds me of an Advent calendar. #dogwoodweek49

Winter Lessons

(338/365)

"How many lessons of faith and beauty we should lose, if there were no winter in our year!"

- Thomas Wentworth Higginson

Silver and Gold

(337/365) “Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver and the other’s gold.” - Girl Scout Song

Piper had a busy day yesterday, she met a turtle and spent the afternoon with Roxie!

A Pony for Christmas

(336/365)

"There is a touch of divinity even in brutes, and a special halo about a horse" - Herman Melville

(This angel certainly charmed me!)

Week 48 - Creative: Split Tones

(335/365)

"Shadow is a colour as light is, but less brilliant; light and shadow are only the relation of two tones." - Paul Cezanne

Black and White November is over and color will once again feature prominently in my December pictures — after today, that is! This week’s #dogwood52 prompt is actually a great transition from the previous thirty monochromatic images to the final thirty full color photos in this year’s #Project365.

Split Toning is an effect which has its origins in film. It involves tinting the highlights in an image one color and the shadows another color. For best results, photographers often start with a black and white image and use opposite colors for each, such as yellow and blue, green and magenta, etc. for the highlights and shadows.

This was a new process for me. I used yellow for the faded hydrangea petals and blue for the shadows in the snow. I like how this effect illustrates the brilliance of a sunny winter day. #dogwood52 #dogwoodweek48

November in Pictures

“Spring's wakening bugle long is hushed; long dimm'd is Summer's splendour; October yields her easel bright to black and white November!” - James Rigg, "November," Wild Flower Lyrics and Other Poems, 1897