Adobe Lightroom

I have been using pretty simple editing software for my photos for years.  I never learned Photoshop but recently my son showed me Lightroom.  I was impressed because it looked fairly simple to use but still allowed some more sophisticated adjustments.  I could tweak things more and in some ways more closely approximate some of the things that I could do with film and working in a darkroom.  I have made some black and white prints that I'm very happy with now.  I decided to stretch things a bit on the colour and was pretty happy with this one.

An old barn in a field: A little cheating on the colours

I think it is evident that I love taking pictures.  But let it be said that I'm not a photoshop guru.  I may adjust the brightness or contrast a little - most of my pictures, that is all I do.  But I do like the painterly effects of some filters so I use those occasionally.  This picture I messed around with a little so that the colours are not 'true' but I quite liked the result.  It was taken a little northwest of Calgary.

Another horse picture on a drive the other day:

Fall in Ontario

In certain parts of North America, Fall is definitely the nicest time of the year.  It can be warm, at least comfortable with no bugs.  And the colours in the northeast are wonderful.  Here are a couple of pictures taken in the morning with some mist still on the lake - in Muskoka, a little north and east of Toronto.

Toronto Brick - Now: Evergreen Brickworks

This is more a personal interest shot than an 'art' picture.  I used to buy brick from Toronto Brick back in the 1980s.  It has since closed down and then was revamped with restaurants and shops.  Various events for kids and such.  You can check the website out here: http://ebw.evergreen.ca/

I thought it interesting as, although I knew the basics of how brick was made, I'd never been this close to the kilns where they were made.  It was great to "walk through the process".

Halloween Calgary 2011

Hundreds of people in costume wandering around downtown Calgary on Saturday night.  Many were dancing to Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' at Eau Claire Market Mall.

Niagara Falls in Black and White

The clouds were great and I thought this would be so much better in black and white than color.  Most pictures that you see of this area are in colour and many are great but as the clouds were so great I wanted to show them off in black and white: