Tuesday, May 19, 2009

'Twas a Dark and Stormy Night...

DAY 126

06 MAY 09

Okay, so it wasn't really dark and stormy. It wasn't even night. But with this photo, it looks like it could have been, doesn't it?

I met a friend for lunch for lunch (Hi, Tess! ::waving::) in a nearby mega-shopping area. During our meal, I took a few photos of her new little girl (and she is cuter than cute!), hoping to use one as my Project 365 photo. In fact, I'd told Tess I was planning to do exactly that. But little Anna did not want to cooperate.

The shot I wanted, my money shot, was that little cutie pie with her eyes open. I took a few "eyes closed" pictures, but I really wanted a good shot where I could see her little peepers. And I think that little stinker knew it. I know it sounds crazy, since the child was only a month old, but she knew it! She'd open her eyes a couple seconds, I'd pull the camera out, aim it, set focus, and just as I was about to hit the shutter, she'd close her eyes again.

She didn't do this just once. Oh, no. Just once wouldn't have tortured the crazy lady with the camera. No, she did it at least half a dozen times! It was a conspiracy, I tell ya!

I left that restaurant glad I got to visit with Tess (who I hadn't seen in a while), excited I finally got to see her daughter, but fairly certain I'd have to settle for a cutesy-wutesy shot with baby's eyes closed.

Part of our discussion over our meal was -- believe it or not -- the weather. We were under a tornado watch that day, and before I left my house, I was keeping a close eye on the skies. I was in a pretty violent car crash last year on a tornado watch day, and I wasn't really relishing driving under repeat conditions. Despite the weather warning, the day looked pretty innocuous so I decided not to postpone the lunch. Turns out Tess was contemplating the same thing (because of the baby) and reached the same decision.

On my way home, the sky started taking on a not-so-harmless appearance. To keep my nerves settled, I took pictures. I got in trouble when my husband saw one -- he didn't believe that I'd actually stopped the truck in the middle of the road to get the shot. (I really did, though, since there wasn't any traffic behind me at the time.) But this shot I didn't get in trouble for.

I took this one while stopped at a traffic light. Pointed the camera up through my closed sun/moon roof and took a few quick shots because the clouds just looked so darn cool.

Post-processing: I converted this one to black & white in ACR, then played a little in the split-toning tab to recover some of the bluish tint that existed in the original photo. Then I did my usual noise reduction, sharpening and curves adjustment. I also used the cloning and healing tools a little to minmize reflections along the bottom edge.

4 comments:

  1. Cool cloud formations. I don't blame you a bit for stopping to take photos.

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  2. Clouds do often manage to stop me in my tracks.

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  3. Nice shot! And LOL on your stopping in the middle of the road.

    As for Anna, she was teasing you. But I'm glad we finally got together. We need to plan another outing soon. :)

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  4. Tess -- My stopping in the middle of the road isn't surprising at all, is it? :D

    Agreed on another outing. As far as Anna, she must have viewed me as the paparazzi. "No more pictures!"

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