I took this picture in November 07, while on a business trip to Florida [Someone had to make the trip to southern Florida in November when it was cold in the north. :-) ]. The settings are 50 mm f/16 1/500 second, ISO 400. This was taken on a Nikon D50. I used a table top tripod I carry with me when I travel. It is small and will fit in most bags. It works well for low beach shots because I can put it into the sand without worrying about ruining a tripod that has expandable legs.

A few folks asked about the framing I use in some of my photos. This one is a frame I automated in Photoshop via an action.

My workflow:

1. Lightroom [right click on image > edit in Photoshop
   
2. Photoshop opens the image as a TIFF file
3. In the layers pallet, double click on the image and rename it
4. Create a new layer below your image layer
5. Edit the Canvas size: Image>canvas size
6. While in the canvas size dialogue box select ensure relative is selected and modify the canvas size by 10% for both width and height. Below the relative check box their is a small diagram which indicates where your image will remain. For this step ensure the image is in the middle.
   
7. Step 6 will increase your canvas size by 10% all around the image.
8. Fill the layer you made in step 4 with white [or whatever color you like]
9. Create a second layer below the layer you made in step 4
10. Edit the canvas size again: Image>canvas size
11. This step is a little different than step 6. Only modify the height [15%] and ensure you click on the anchor point in the middle of the top row. This step increases the bottom part of the matting around your image but does nothing to the width or the top portion.
    
12. Select the image layer and modify the layer style [lower left hand side of the layer pallet is a small f] Click on it and add a drop shadow and a bevel to the image. In this image the bevel was 10 pixels. Play with this until you find a look you like.
13. Add the text below the image. I use Papyrus font.
14. Once you get a look you like, create an action. It will cut this step down to seconds.

Get out and enjoy the beauty of life!

Adding color to a black and white image

Both of these images are converted from the same file.  The second image has slightly 'stronger' red tone added to the flowers than the first image. 

To create these images, I started in Lightroom 2.0 and right clicked on the 'full' color version of the RAW file and created a virtual copy.  I converted the virtual copy to a black and white image and adjusted the black and fill light to enhance the image.  In the original file, I boosted the hue and saturation [red] to bring out some of the color in the flowers.  I was cautious not to adjust the color too much to avoid a cartoonish or fake look.  After both images were modified to where I liked them, I right clicked on the image and selected edit in Photoshop [CS2].  This next technique works in any photo editing software that supports layers.  [PS Elements, etc]. 

Photoshop steps:

1. Drag the black and white image to the color image and rename each layer to identify the layer [e.g. the bottom layer = color, the next layer = b&w, etc.
2.  Create a mask on the b&w layer.  Hit the 'B' key [brush] and ensure black is selected in the color pallet. 
3. Adjust the brush size to a comfortable size to 'paint' over the flowers.  The shortcut key for adjusting the brush size is the '[' and ']' keys.
4. Paint over the flowers and the color from the first layer will show through to the second layer.  The trick is not to paint too much to the hands or clothing.  Use the 'z' key to zoom in and out when needed.
5. In this image, I wanted to 'black' out the couple's jeans to add some 'pop' to the flowers.  I created a layer above the black and white layer and painted black over the jeans.  I did not paint the black on the black and white layer because I did not want to alter the 'original' layer.

When either image is printed, a white mat and black frame would accent the flowers and the couple's hands.

Thanks for viewing and remember, get out and capture the beauty of life!