In Someone’s World

This structure, complete with water wheel!, is part of what is known as the Queen’s Hamlet at Versailles.

ISO 640 14mm f/13 1/160sec

Walking around the hamlet, it seems no surprise that many accused Marie-Antoinette of living in her own world, far removed from that of her subjects. The grounds and gardens of Versailles are very beautiful though, even on a less than perfect weather day.  The original file that my black and white is based on is this one:

ISO 640 14mm f/13 1/160sec

The sky and the light, as you can see, were overcast and drab, so I decided to try this image as a black and white. As I was experimenting with the different filters in Lightroom, it was the infrared one that I ended up liking the best. I mention that in part because I don’t often use that filter. The other edit that was important here was a graduated filter which I ran from the top to the bottom of the frame, that had the effect of darkening the sky the most and the snow the least. I used the healing tool as well to remove the wire in the lower right hand of the photo and the people who are in the original but not the monochrome version.

Can you imagine building a village in your backyard? The tree fort I built as a kid did not include a water wheel I can assure you, but maybe you thought on a grander scale than I did? Your comments on this pretend world at Versailles or the “real” one you built as a child are welcome below!

Cheers!

Add to Tuesday Photo Challenge, Our World and Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge, Circles and Curves.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Change

For this week’s photo challenge from WordPress the theme is change.  The photos in this gallery have all been changed, they represent the scene that you would see but in a different color.  These photos have all been shot using an infrared filter.  Then they were processed in Photoshop.  Infrared is something new for me, a change from the routine.  I have spent some time looking on line for tips and tutorials on how to shoot and process infrared.  As you will see in the gallery, it is a work in progress.  Are you able to help me with this?  Do you have an sources or tips on how to do this type of photography?  I would appreciate your thoughts in the commentary.  Feel free to leave links including those to your own blog post(s) if this is something you have written about.

ISO 250 50mm 0ev f/13 4s

ISO 800 50mm 0ev f/13 2s

ISO 250 50mm 0ev f/4 1s

ISO 800 50mm 0ev f/13 1s

ISO 800 50mm 0ev f/13 1s

Cheers!

Travel Theme: Mystical

When I saw that mystical was the theme this week at Where’s my backpack?, I knew what I was going to be blogging about right away.  I have borrowed an infrared filter for the week, so here is a photo I took in the morning at about 8 am:

ISO 500 50mm 0ev f/10 87sec.

I put two others on flickr, so you can pop over and check them out if you like.

Cheers!