Photo Challenge: Textures & Patterns

Today is the new Brenda Photo Challenge, and I am excited to be the hostess this time! The theme is Textures & Patterns. With the weather being so cold, I did not take any new photos for this challenge. But I had plenty of choices to select from my inventory of traveling pictures. I am always on the lookout for interesting scenes that feature great textures and patterns because they help me stretch for better artistic compositions. I chose the photographs below because each one of them makes me want to reach out and touch the subject matter.

This old grist wheel is built right into the stonework of an exterior wall of the Inn at Evins Mill (where we stayed last October). The photo was taken at f/3.5 and 1/60 second.

I love interesting trees and can’t resist taking pictures of them wherever I go. The stately pine in this photo was at Bryce Canyon National Park. Its weathered bark, shining in the morning light, tells a story about its difficult life. The camera settings were f/7.1 and 1/800 second.

While we were traveling on our Kentucky trip in November, we stopped at the Buffalo Trace distillery. This weathered door and stone foundation belong to an old warehouse used for storing the filled whiskey barrels. The warehouse roof and some upper walls were damaged by a tornado in 2006. Thankfully, no one was injured and not a single whiskey barrel was harmed! Repairs were made with the original old bricks. Unless you know where to look, it is hard to see where it was repaired. The photo was taken at f/5.6 and 1/160 second.

We didn’t take a tour at the famous Jack Daniels distillery last year (too crowded), but we stopped at the little town of Lynchburg to have a look around. In the town square was a charming bronze statue of Mr. Jack, settled in a reflective pose. I zoomed in for a close-up of that deeply lined face and weathered hands. The camera settings were f/5.6 and 1/30 second.

This was such an interesting picture, I decided to play with Photoshop and see what mischief I could create. I was pleased with this result, using a light blue/grey color wash and a graphic pen filter. Presto, it turned from a photograph to a sketch!