Bright but overcast yesterday, the first day of spring, I enjoyed a nice walk in the Crystal River valley. My landscapes came out predictably dull (that doesn't stop me from shooting them - another advantage of digital photography is you can "waste" shots if you want). On my way home my eye was caught by a downed log with matted grasses curved over it. The winter snow pressed down on these for months, creating a gentle curve that I was able to capture by holding my camera inches from the ground.
Because of the flat light, there are no harsh shadows, and I was able to achieve contrast using the levels adjustment in Photoshop. I then converted to black & white with the channel mixer, and used the unsharp mask to add a degree of sharpness. I cropped much of the bokeh background, cutting from the top and right side. With shots like this, I'll try to see where in the frame my eye is drawn, and then crop so that location is on one of the "rule of thirds" lines (or intersection of two of them). In this case, one-third from the top of the frame.
