I decided to go hit some golf balls yesterday afternoon since the temperature finally got back up in the 60's. I also threw my camera gear in the truck because I had spotted this old house behind the practice range. Once again I hoped for some great sunset light and didn't get any. I did use some long exposures which gave me the chance to run inside the old house and pop off my flash. I did this several times in several exposures which were combined. Still not satisfied I said to myself  " why don't you just over process this image like so many other photographers are doing. Some people seem to really like that look." I show two stages of this process below. I really tweaked the second one. What bugs me about both is the glow or halo where the sky meets the trees and house. I have toned it down in these examples but the affect is usually much worse in some of the work I see on the internet.

After shooting the old house I headed back towards home and drove through the square in Downtown Garland. The coffee shop was open and I decided to take a few shots. The second one shows a good reflection of the Plaza Theater in the window.

A step away from the bright colors!

Old Farmhouse #2

This old farmhouse is off I40 between the Texas border and San Jon, New Mexico. I had seen it before and never had the time or decent conditions to stop and photograph it. It was quite funny getting this image. When we stopped I could see one cow standing in front of the building. He spotted us and started walking towards the fence where I would be setting up my tripod and shooting over. Another dozen or so appeared out of nowhere and all started heading my way. Suddenly I have a whole herd of cows up against the fence and making it hard to compose my shot. I was able to get the image I wanted but I think all the cows were quite disappointed that I didn't throw a bale of hay over the fence to them. I have a full black and white of this but I also thought it was interesting with about 50% of the color desaturated.

Old Car and Windmill

I spotted this scene as Gary drove us through the back roads of Oklahoma. I'm not sure if I could find it again. I converted it to black and white and gave it a little sepia tone.
Clark