Under The Pier In Color And Black & White

I took this in color, but imagined it would look better in black & white. So, I've posted it here both ways, but after I had changed the coloring, I decided I actually liked the color version better. Which do you prefer?

My Edits To Bull Roping Photo For Fix-It Friday - Week 39

I'm trying something new this week. I usually only post my own photos, but I found this great blog, I ♥ Faces, that has a meme (of sorts) called Fix-It Fridays. On Fix-It Fridays a photo is posted and 5 experts fix the photo to their liking. They also encourage anyone who wants to try their hand at fixing the photo to do so. It's so interesting to see how much can be done with the same photo, and how different everyone's interpretation of "fixed" is. It really goes to show that art (photography) is very subjective.

With that said, since I love PhotoShop but still know very little about it, I decided to play around with the photo myself and here is what I've come up with. Let me know what you think! I had a lot of fun with it! I'm using PhotoShop 7.0.

Original Photo (photographer thought the photo was a little bright and needed to be toned down a bit and she wished that the colors were more vibrant. She also felt like the photo might have been overexposed.)

This was my first fix. I cropped it, changed the Levels, Curves, Hue, and Saturation; then I Sharpened it and finally Sharpened Edges.  I think it makes it 'pop' more... you can see the gravel flying more clearly now.

Then I decided it might look good with the edges burned.

And finally, I thought, well the burned edges made it look older, so maybe it would look good in sepia tones.

Gnarled Trees By The Shore

For some reason I really liked these trees. Their gnarled branches make them look so exotic and somewhat spooky. I love the way the water color turned out in this photo too. It really didn't look that vibrant at the time, it was pretty, but not nearly as gorgeous as the picture makes it look.