Club print "salon" entries for December

I was pleased with how these two images came out.  The color entry was an after-thought.  I was reviewing my images from a 2009 trip to Colorado, and found myself attracted to this picture of autumn aspen trees. After making a vertical crop from the original horizontal image I decided it would make a nice print.  I liked the simple composition and of course the colors.  There is a bit of drama in the sky and just a patch of blue, all of which helped make a fairly even exposure. What I find interesting is that when, a few minutes ago, I went to my Web site to see my 50 favorites from this trip, this image wasn't even included!  This is why I think it is smart not to initially discard too many images. (I am going to add this image to the 50 favorites right after I finish this post!)



The black and white was taken on the same day as the color image.  This was along a gravel road to Crested Butte, Colorado.  I take all my images in color and do the conversion to black and white in photoshop.  It is difficult to know which images will look good in black and white.  I usually experiment with a dozen or so images before I find one that looks reasonable in black and white.  Here I only wish that the solid blue sky was behind the aspens on the right to provide greater contrast against the light bark of the aspens.  Nevetheless, the whispy clouds add to the image in my opinion.... I just wish the clouds were on the left instead.