October 4, 2008

Photo Challenge: Yellow

Time for the latest Brenda Photo Challenge! The subject is Yellow, picked by the current challenge hostess, Tabitha of Twinkle Twinkle.

Hillside Yellow - Since the fall colors were on display during our recent trip to Colorado, I would be remiss to not share a picture of nature’s yellow paint on a beautiful hillside. This was taken near the famous Maroon Bells (seen on the right) located outside of Aspen, Colorado. The combination of early morning light and use of a polarizer filter really helps to emphasize the colors. It was taken at f/5.6 and 1/125 second.

fall colors blanket the hillsides near the Maroon Bells

"Carry a Gun with You” Yellow – The cheerful color of yellow is commonly used for signs, since it visually stands out in an overall scene. The message on this sign certainly makes you stand up and take notice. Not to worry! When I spotted this, I was safely located on the porch outside the Hickory House Restaurant, ready to chow down some of their famous baby back ribs. Oh my, it was a great dinner! I took this shot at f/5.6 and an amazing 1/10 second (hand-held). It is incredibly sharp thanks to a Nikkor 24-120mm zoom lens with vibration reduction (and also because I held my breath).

don't try to pet or feed the bears! GROWL!

Cottage Greeting Yellow – I wanted to include an “artsy-fartsy” shot this week for the challenge, and it took some thinking on what to feature. I finally decided to take a picture of our cottage’s sign which hangs on the main front porch. Our house is grey with white trim, and the sign is black with gold leafing. So the scene is naturally monochromatic, except for the yellow shine of the gold leafing. The photo was taken in the early evening, and the view was completely in the shadows. The settings were f/4.5 at 1/30 second (hand-held). To manipulate the image with my imaging software, I first applied a “poster edges” filter and then applied a “dry brush” filter on top of it. I was quite happy with the result!

a welcome awaits at Grey Havens cottage

25 comments:

  1. Oh you artsy fartsy thang!!
    I do love that shot!!
    And it'd take much more than a yellow sign to get me walkin' where there is bears!!!
    Spray or gun???
    Ah...Yup Gun i thinK!

    Great Job of the challenge though Joan

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  2. These are wonderful Donna! I Love the yellow hillside flowers! Gorgeous! Happy Saturday!!!hughugs

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  3. Haha, I'd opt for the gun too, Joan! No doubt! We were up in the high country for our optional jeep trip and didn't see any signs like this (thankfully) until we got on the porch of a restaurant! LOL. Glad you liked my challenge contributions, including the artsy-fartsy one!

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  4. Thanks, Donna! Glad you enjoyed my pictures!

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  5. Hi Donna,

    Great job on the photos. The hill of flowers are gorgeous and that bear sign would make you think about hiking. I love your sign that sayd Grey Havens and what you did with it. I will have to get into my photoshop some more and play around with it. Great job.

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  6. Beautiful pictures! Even the bear warning one!!

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  7. They're all great! I would love to see Hillside yellow enlarged. What an awesome view!

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  9. Yellow aspen! When we lived in Colorado, we had to make a weekend trek to see the aspen at least once in the fall. There's nothing like it.

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  10. Thank you, Brenda! I purposely size my photos to the standard blogging size. That helps to prevent people from getting a good copy of them and then passing them on as their own. Since I know you well, I would be glad to send you a higher resolution file. Just post me a comment with your e-mail address. I'll delete the comment so that your address will not be hanging out there for all the world to see.

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  11. Thank you so much, Joan! Glad you liked my contributions this time. I took the challenge to heart in creating the last photo. It is a lesson in composition - thinking ahead about the possibilities of the shot. I already knew in my head that it was monochromatic, except for the yellow. So I wanted to them manipulate the photo to emphasis the point and make the graphic nature stand out too. Play around with PhotoShop and it will help you start thinking about your shot composition more!

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  12. Thanks, Jeanette! I always try to add a little something for humor, LOL.

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  13. Thanks, Jazzi! That brilliant yellow color in fall leaves can only be done by the aspen, huh? It was incredibly gorgeous!

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  14. Love that hillside shot the best of course. If I saw that bear sign I might think twice about continuing with my walk there hehe. RYC: yeah we have Saturns, which aren't that big compared to most of what's on the roadways, I can't imagine driving one of the smart cars on the highway.

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  15. Thanks, Jeanne! It's hard to beat the delicious scenes that Mother Nature serves up. And the sign cracked me up when I saw it. Yikes!

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  16. Oh my, that mountain shot is wonderful! I like your artistic shot! Makes it look like an illustration! I'm afraid to ask what bear spray is.

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  17. Thank you, Cindra! It was a good week to be in Colorado. I am trying to play around with photoshop some and see what I can do. I still have a ton to learn! Yes, it makes it look like the scene was drawn by hand. Pretty cool. Well, on the bear spray issue, it's made from peppers. You could use it on people too, I suppose, LOL!

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  18. arent the maroon bells breathtaking? When I see them I think of the John Denver song "Rocky Mountain High"....

    LOVE the bear sign! LOL

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  19. They sure are, Tonjia! The bus driver was playing that song while we were touring Rocky Mountain National Park, LOL. Yep, that bear sign is funny!

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  20. Lovely, lovely! You always do such a great job. That first one is my favorite and I'm not going for a hike there.

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  21. Thank you, Karen! LOL, the sign was on the porch of a restaurant. I never saw one out in the wilderness!

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  22. Hallo donna, I like your contributions very much, and it is no surprise that I like the autumn landscape best :)
    I am always fascinated that there are regions in the world where people can get along with bears, using sprays or what ever. In Austria bears are being repatriated (resettled?) on the one hand and then shot when they kill their first sheep. Every year some sort of panic breaks out in the newspapers because somebody has seen a bear somewhere in the Alps. Oh my God!
    Thanks for visiting and have a nice weekendQ

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  23. Thank you for your kind words, Maria. We certainly try to avoid bears here in the US too! We never hear of many encounters, but they do happen. There was one this summer in the Smokey Mountains and some people got injured. You have to be on the lookout and know what to do!

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  24. Beautiful Photos Donna! I love the one of your home... I'm a Lord of the Rings fan since reading the books when I was 19, so I love the name Grey Havens!

    Nita Jo

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  25. Thank you, Nita Jo! We've veen big fans for years and loved the movies when they came out. The story never gets old!

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Marty, here! Donna loves comments, and I faithfully pass them on to her. Thank you so much for visiting!