solitude

We went on a little hike last Saturday at Flatirons Vista, where we used to hike with the girls many years ago. This time it was just Bob and me...and my Canon 6D. This was my favorite shot of the day: a perfect portrait of my husband, enjoying solitude, in his element...seriously, I just saw it unfolding, raised camera to eye, and 'click!' Well, maybe I did ask Bob to go back and re-trace his steps - s l o w l y - so I could frame it a little better. Only once though.

I played around with the image quite a bit before settling on this final version; first some fine-tuning in Lightroom. As you can see below, the color was so drab I knew immediately that a black & white filter would be a good starting point. I tried several B&W presets before settling on David duChemin's Green Filter Cool Duo, which I further tweaked in the Split Toning panel til it felt right. Then into Photoshop, where I smoothed out the sky with a gradient fill adjustment layer and applied two of Kim's textures: kk_vintageteal (Multiply 53%) and then scratchedmagic (Screen 56%). I must have cropped and re-cropped fifty times, mostly a matter of where I wanted the figure to be within the frame, and how to best use the strong diagonal lines of the fence.

Here's the original photo, SOOC (Straight Out Of Camera)

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And the bit about 'solitude'...it's more than just an obvious choice for me to paste onto this image. I've always enjoyed solitude, usually content to amuse myself. Matthew Kelly calls it 'The Classroom of Silence.' A genuine respite from the chatter of everyday life.

Linking up with Texture Tuesday

xoxo

Cindy