A lesson in perspective and patience

This past weekend I attended a children's birthday party, which was held at a local horse stable.  It was great fun for the kids and I had a great time with the camera.  Though HDR is my first photographic love, I made it a point not to do any that day and instead just focus on taking single exposures and try to find interesting things.  At one point I was walking around and saw this old horseshoe hanging on the fence.  I took several shots of it from the angle from which I initially approached it.  Then, I moved on and shot some other stuff further up the path.  When I came back down this way, I decided to have a look at it from this angle.  The sun was streaming down on it in a nice way, the fence made a natural frame, and then - this old horse just walked into the picture.  I thought the horse made a nice touch.  This reminded me that it is important to look at things from different points of view, and that waiting and trying things later can pay off.

This is a single exposure taken at f/4.2 and the exposure bias was -1.  Another thing I am doing these days is trying to stay in Aperture mode for all my shots.  It forces me (in a good way) to think about my shot and my camera settings, instead of just letting the camera think for me.  In other words, it makes me a better photographer.

New Version 4 of Topaz Adjust released yesterday!

I made some minor adjustments to this shot in PSE (Curves, Contrast, Unsharp Mask), and then ran it through the new Version 4 of Topaz Adjust.  What a great product Topaz Adjust is.  If you haven't seen it or tried it yet, you can read my review of it here and get a coupon when you buy it here.  I love the product!

The new version was announced yesterday and I spent a good deal of time last night playing around with it.  It is so much fun and a wonderful tool to have in your arsenal as a photographer.