My thoughts on collecting Photo Reference for Painting

Whilst there is a school of artists that still insist the only landscapes are those painted plein-air. The vast majority will finish their big painting in the comfort of their studio, a few from just sketches but the majority will use photo reference. I love to sketch and paint outdoors but time and the light seldom let you finish a big work outside. However I know that when you try to slavishly copy all the detail in a photo it can make a painting look very flat. Whereas a sketch hurriedly dashed off is more likely to be dynamic and truly capture the sense of the place. So my take on this is to spend time to do a sketch or small composition painting to capture your impressions of the view, and record the important aspect you see. Do this on site. I like to use a watercolour wash, then add the the detail with a soft pencil afterwards (I’m not filling in a detailed sketch with colour, I’m putting down the area of colour and main composition elements then adding a bit of detail.) Or alternatively I just sketch monochrome in pencil of graphite stick.

So My First Rule of taking reference photos is

Start with a sketch

• Put your camera down
• Do some compositional sketch to capture you what you first see and feel. Just the main elements

Whilst I wait for the watercolour wash to dry enough to sketch without damaging the paper. I find this is a good time to pick up the camera and take those reference picture because you now know what is important in the image. The first photo being the obvious, the same view you are painting. This is where a camera with a zoom lens comes in handy because it is likely that your composition will not match a snapshot from your camera. You will probably have to zoom in or out. In my example I have taken two images side by side and then stitched them together, using Austostitch, because my sketch is a little wider than by camera can handle (alternatively I could walk back behind me before I took the scene, assuming their is room and the full scene if not obscured)

However don’t stop there, take at least an additional 4 views, zoomed in (or walking close) to key aspects of detail that will help you finish or zoom out to get the broad feel of the place (you might like to add some slightly out of view detail or subject into your composition). If there are large areas of colour or texture photograph them, they could be the key to visual appeal in your photo.

 

So My Second Rule of taking reference photos is

Take Five

• The composition you intention to paint.
• Plus 4 details zoomed in or out, or concentrating of a key texture or colour

The biggest limitation of trying to copy a photo religiously happens with tonal issues. Whilst modern digital cameras are great they still have limitations with Dynamic Range and photos typically look flat compared with what you saw as you where sketching. There are two approached here that can help here by they may require a upgraded camera.

The first approach if to take a bracket set of images (many but not all point and shoot cameras can take a set of three EV settings, older camera usually don’t have this built in but there are several camera apps that add this capability. The bracketed set gives you an underexposed version (to focus on the highlight) a normal exposure and an over exposed version (which will give you a lot more details in the shadows). These three images should give you the ability to play with the tonality to suit your composition. If you want to take the tonal representation further you could investigate processing this bracketed set as a HDR image and refine the tonal mapping to bring out the tones as you remember. HDR is an advance post processing technique that requires specialist software but it will give you a lot of freedom adjusting the tonal range.

The second approach is to take RAW format images (probably as well as jpeg). This require software that can handle RAW images (like Lightroom, Aftershop Pro, OnOne or RAW therapy). The advantage here is the raw format records everything recorded by the camera sensor and it is possible to “pull” extra detail out of the shadows and often bring back the highlights. This requires learning how to use this software and extra time to refine the RAW images. However the ability to refine tonality and colour can be wonderfully inspiring. I started to like having the overhanging tree as part of the composition.

So My Third Rule of photo reference, if you have the technology to do it, is

Why not Take Ten?

• Use Bracketing
• Take and Process RAW images

Travelling back in time

I’m doing a trip from Melbourne to The Blue Mountains but travelling by some of the back roads, places I haven’t been before and the only map I have is an old version (1964) of The Reader Digest Complete Atlas of Australia.The two relevant pages do have maps that do have most of the significant roads as they were back in the 1960 but none of the fancy new freeways and no highway names. Still I just wanted to get to a few key towns and it wasn’t hard (just sometimes confusing as to the most direct route) and with the occasional directions as I got petrol or a coffee. Anyway the trip was a delight and I didn’t get lost. AND I didn’t have to resort to the GPS in my phone. Some of the places I passed through looking as if they haven’t changed at all since the 60s (or even before). However many of the inland large towns looked quiet prosperous and up to date, then just down the road you were going back 50 years again.

Traveling companions

It didn’t take long to collect some extra things to take along with the new computer when I’m on the road again (that’s tomorrow). The most import items are the USB adaptor (the HP spectre only had USB C sockets and my card readers which are the older USB A (I have more than one because they are prone to damage and being lost). Once I had the adaptor to the conventional USB I figured a backpack style USB harddrive (for backups on the road) and a mouse (easy of use in full screen mode) may as well tag along. The mobile Wifi is to give me web access when there are no local WiFi hot stops. the phone can also acts as a local hotspot at a pinch but it is here as an extra camera.

The full kit and chargers is just over 2kg (that’s light).

I do love the spectre x2 hardware & performance

I trust I’m not giving the impression that I’m  a cranky old man. I’m just a frustrated one. I do love the HP Spectre its got a decent enough size to do “proper” photo post processing. Further the software I have Installed has worked without problem (just registration of aftershot pro has not worked yet). Lightroom in particular is blazing faster than on anything I’ve used before (probably because of the SSD drive). Even importing over 200 photos in both raw and jpeg took well under a minute (no time to go and make a coffee and stop and chat anymore). It is also really responsive in the library module as well. Maybe I’ll get better acquainted again. Picasa, OnOne, NIC software add-ins and are all more responsive than on my desktop or laptop. Aftershot Pro 2 is on steroids its so fast to load photos and scroll etc,

A downside I had not considered is the realisation that these are not touch screen aware, and have to be run full screen, when in tablet mode, without the advantage of touch screen controls, but that is where the pen comes in perfect. I’m used to using wacom tablets so the pen control is familiar to me. However if you are used to a mouse only, it might be a struggle (for the first few days, or maybe a week or so) It wasn’t long before I found a spare USB mouse for convenience, but I do use the pen mostly for photo editing.The screen is perfect for me it is more vivid and a little stronger (when set to a higher brightness +75%) for old eyes, even though it has lower resolution than the surface or a retina screen I couldn’t possible discern that extra resolution and there are plenty of tools to zoom in anyway. As with other IPS screen it is hard to read outside in strong direct daylight. Finding a little shade and having brightness at 100% works fine for me.

 

I’m not ready for this

My nightmares are returning. Today I found 6 recommended updated waiting in my HP Support Assistant's tray (that’s a funny name for what appears to just be a notification system), Ok two of those have either stalled (as above) or been cancelled (not by me, as on left), Surely they should have been something included in yesterday’s upgrade? Evidently not.

Next I was on google chrome and looking at flickr and suddenly no internet, Looking around I found the wifi now called wifi2 (again not by me) is turned off and refused to be turned on (shades of my limp along upgraded system). Trouble shooting told me the wifi was turned off but didn’t tur it on, probably because it wouldn’t. Yet another restart and the wifi was still off but I could turn it back on again.

Then when I went to use chrome, it wanted to restore previous session, let me look at a couple of pages and then crashed. Trying to retry again took be back into the one or two pages and crash loop, Another restart and starting chrome without a restore and thing appear back to normal, but in an hour later and I have only had this computer three days. I do notice that chrome remote desktop (not installed on this PC, is now not working on my other computers, Are these problems related.

All the restarts have seen the icon in full screen mode thrown back to the right hand side and icons for the windows apps like mail disappeared. They are still tiles on the touch screen mode but the full screen photographic applications (lightroom etc) no longer have tiles! I’m running out of patience

NOT HAPPY, are you listening HP, Microsoft and/or Google

Three Flowers, Three Processing options

I’m not a fan of the idea of a rigid workflow. I understand this is a good way to train new folk in complex process, software. However in a traditional artist workshop (and I’m willing to bet in early darkrooms). You did an “apprenticeship”, where you used all the tools and techniques under the wise watchful eyes of a mentor. You mixed the colours or chemicals prepared the canvas or plates and did countless copies, sketches, contact prints… You basically learnt how the all the media and tools worked. After much practice you could branch out on your own, confidently knowing how things worked. This is not the case today, especially with digital photography.

 

So here are a few of my experiments with different software and approaches. The red hibiscus is a straight HDR, with really restrained tone mapping straight from the RAW using Aftershot Pro2, The second, sunny yellow hibiscus, was a great JPEG, but I took the RAW file into lightroom and reduced the luminance of the blue channel (darkening the the sky) very minor tonal tweaks and into OnOne to get a big softy vignette. The Third was badly under-exposed and taken under incandescent light to horribly yellow colour cast, but it was the photo I choose as the daily photo, so I had to try and repair it. I like the White Balance tools for RAW files in lightroom (although I seldom use them) but that was my first stop, with a lens calibration as well and a little lift to the exposure and corresponding balancing of detail and noise I had a reasonable image, which I took over into OnOne enhance to remove some extraneous leaves and complexity on the edge, then Into OnOne Effects to blur some of the background flowers and stems some more, this requires masking and layers, a very light sunshine glow filter, and this time a blenched out margin vignette. Perhaps still a fussy image but way improved. Changes I would not have been able to pull off working on the underexposed and colour cast jpeg, especially if I had a fixed workflow formula and had not experiments with all these tools before.

Be brave don’t always follow that workflow

This is not what I wanted to see

Just two days into ownership of my new HP spectre and I woke up to this. A Windows Update. This sent chills down my spine. Windows 10 updates have killed two of my computers and severely hobbled another. The damn thing took its time as well.

So far I can’t see any changes but I also can;t see any damage done either. However around 10% of my available disk space just vanished. It seems I have a directory now called windows.old duplicating my current windows directory. As I have very low confidence in Microsoft updates I’m going to have to keep it around in case I need to undo the update.

Is it really necessary to update software within two days? If so what is wrong with the operating system? I’m sure those with 125 GB disks will not be happy losing 20% of their disk space so soon after purchase

Tale of two cameras

I am often asked which is the best camera, and I usually answer “the one you already have”. Some times I might change it to “the camera you like to use”. Basically all modern digital cameras from camera phones up, well more specifically those with about 4 megapixels and higher (ie less than 4 years old) are great. Will a new camera make a difference? Yes maybe, but it probably has a lot more to do with the person behind the camera.

 

The photo above left was taken on my android phone using a camera app called HDR Camera+, which processes the HDR image in the phone, and then it was loaded via the flickr app as soon as I got  good wifi. All pretty automatic. The image on the right came from my big DLSR, it is part of a bracketed set (that didn’t work so well because the ducks where moving, and I abandonned using HDR). I had to load the RAW file into lightroom and do some tonal adjustments and a slight trim then into OnOne for some dynamic contrast adjustments and a big softy vignette (all my favourite “style” adjustments). I have presets that do these steps, however I didn’t use them it didn’t take long but it took time but I prefer to adjusted things manually. It also had to manually uploaded to flickr (flickr’s nice Uploadr is no longer available to me because I have a Free account).

 

The two photos are different, and I would put down the difference mainly to the quality of the lens (on my DLSR) and a little bit to my post processing skill. However I see these two photos as markers of where photography is heading. The smaller cameras where a lot more of the smarts about how to process the image are built into the camera, or phone. In other words a smart camera with software doing a lot of the work. Compare this with the modern DLSR it is big and clunky, they can mostly can take amazing detail photos, but the controls are largely in the hands of the photographer and his/her vision is usually also required to get the most out of post processing. While I love it in the second more traditional place (the right hand side above) I can see the future being towards smarter and probably smaller cameras (the left hand side above) and I think you can expect to see more many improvements to come there. DLSR are not dinosaurs about to become extinct, a lot of folk including me still love them but they have definitely plateaued in term of technical development, but they can capture wonderful images.

Picasa has gone, but am I using Google photos?

Whilst the free download for Picasa has been removed (as promised) it still works fine. In fact on my recent trip was the one reliable piece of software an a laptop struggling under a windows 10 upgrade. The alternative, google photos boldly promoted by google on the picasa download page, just proved inaccessible while I was away. Mainly because I was having difficulty accessing the local form of WiFi hotspots. Basically I see googles photos as an on-line and mobile only service and thus of little interest to me. Whilst I once recommended sharing via google picasa web albums, as a way to control the sharing (rather than it being always public, as in most other social net services). This is no longer the case and to share on google photos is effectively public. You can still store your photos privately and that is the default. However if you are concerned about privacy, a better option is  just don’t upload photos to the net services. My trust in google as a place to store your photos has been significantly eroded this year already and my recommendation is to make sure google photos is not the only place you keep your photos (ie download then and back them up, do it now!)

There is one exception, after Microsoft abandoned Live Writer, I started using Open Live Writer (Microsoft had made the sensible move and made their well loved blogging tool open source). which just happens to seamlessly store any photos for the blog post in google photos. This works fine so for at least the short term (ie until that stops working) it is public sharing and I’m aware of that and I contune using google photos in my blog posts (a task largely taken over by flickr at the moment by the way)  but probably for nothing else.

Illegitimi non carborundum

Flickr’s Autotagging

I have been impressed with flickr’s autotagging of photos, It is much more precise than google photos’s search groupings. My thought was always that the google photo system should give the user the ability to flag their photos and say for example this is not a cat However I could never find such and option. Up to now I had not felt inclined to try and correct flirks system, which occurs as you load the photo, Today when I went to remove a couple of tags incorrectly allocated to this photo of a ring tail possum, which flickr had tag as a cat and a pet, and the lattice fencing it is peering through as a photo border, I found I could not delete the autotags. So flickr is also missing the opportunity to have users help improve their classification.

 Flickr was a very earlier introducer of keyword tagging and you can have up to 75 tags, This helps both yourself and others find the themes in photos. The introduction of autotagging happened last yeast and these tags are differentiates by being in a white box with a grey outline. Whereas the tags you add are shown in a grey box. To remove a tag you just hover the mouse over it and a X shows up on the right hand side, clicking on it then deletes the tag. The issue I discovered today that this  while this works on your tags (the grey boxed tags) it does not work on the the autotags (white boxed tags)

PS: Just a day after I posted the above obserbvation the ability to deleted auto tags has returned. It probably only went away last week. However judging my the help forum thread a lot of other users noticed it as well. I appluad the flickr team for respondng quickly. Unfortunate the forum post associate this with a possible drop in the performance of correctly classifing photo, but I must admit I find it hard to believe that this might be cased by users deleting miss classified photo, I think that should improve classification.

Is this another [Deprecation] from google?

Google has chosen Google Plus, another service it many be winding down, to announce that they are now offering the well love NIK software for free downloads. These are the computer version (Mac & Windows) that function as add-ins to Lightroom, Photoshop Elements & Photoshop. Googe bought NIK a few years ago supposedly to get access to the snapseed mobile versions of NIK. They still offer snapseed as a standalone on IOS and androids apps but the snapseed like edit functions have been removed from the current offering of google photos.

This is a all little worrying given google’s history of killing off applications, It does suggest they have changed direction and supporting non on-line photo editing and management is no longer in their photo strategies. So like Picasa, the NIK software is great and if you want to be able to keep using it now is the time to download it to ensure you have the latest version.

PhotoFriday :: Blossom

Hibiscus in the Sunshine

For PhotoFriday‘s topic Blossom

Hello from my new photographic travel mate

After the frustration of travelling with the upgraded laptop, that was having trouble connecting to wifi, amongst other frustrations. I felt it was time to get a much lighter but still powerful enough PC to use specifically for my photographic endeavors as I travel. The basics were pretty simple to map out, I wanted a browser, email, something run to Lightroom and OnOne 10 and Aftershot Pro. That would require 8GB as the minimum workable memory, an SSD drive if possible at least 256GB, a decent screen and light weight. Whilst there are lots of laptops that fit the bill I was attracted to just 3. The Microsoft Surface 4 Pro, the HP Spectre and the Apple MacBook Pro, Whilst the Apple with retina had the nicest screen it was by far the most expensive and I would have to restock my software tools and I’m not a fan of apple OS anyway.  Relearning the way I work while I travelled was really not an option. The decision between the Surface Pro and the Spectre was more difficult. They are both 2 in 1 machines that can run as a Windows 10 PC but also be run in tablet mode and have touch screens. It ended up just being the spectre is a sexy build, very James Bond, metal case and much nicer keyboard and the backlight IPS screen has a lower resolution than the surface but looked better with my photos (I spent some time on each computer looking at my recent daily photos on flickr, then stress tested the wifi access and checked out their keyboard. Not exactly a detailed technical investigation). So all three would be fine but the spectre looks more durable & stylish, something I could confidently lug around and still get down to serious photographic post processing and management. I'm not used to touch screens (yet) but the spectre comes with a pen that works a lot like the pen stylus on a wacom tablet, so that feels natural and powerful for me. Keyboard and pen are extra costs on the surface putting it significantly higher in price for a comparable setup. At 1.4 kg with the power block its less than a fifth the weight of my toshiba laptop and power brick (7.5kg). Travel fun awaits...

PhotoFriday :: Pink

For PhotoFriday‘s topic Pink

The Aftermath

Whilst the art and camera gear I took travelling was fine. I didn’t use everything but what I had was certainly adequate to sketch and get some great photos. The joy stopped with the computer, which I have travelled with a many times before but never had any problems. That is until it was ungraded, in retrospect a bad decision. The problems have spilled over from the trip. On the way hoe the cabin baggage was weight and my backup, which doesn’t seem heavy to be was well over the limit to I had to hand carry the laptop. Not devastating but inconvenient.

The last straw was when I got home the wifi was working but I had to yet again re-licence OnOne and After shot when I went back to me original user account. Now lightroom is stalling.again. Perhaps it is time to take the photographic stuff off the laptop and dedicated it to my consulting work (and leave it in the office). Just leave the serious post processing till I get home and can use my desktop.  Either that or do a cold install back to windows 7, then reload everything (not a task I fancy).

Shredding Software at a great rate

To be able to access the internet I have had to set up new accounts on my limp-a-long windows 10 laptop. Some software I had to reinstalled but the photo applications I am using OnOne, Corel After Shot, Picasa And lightroom kept working. However now OnOne & Aftershot keep wanting me to re-register. Oneone has now even stopped working the trial periods is apparently over. It must be just 6 days since that is when I set up the new account.  I have purchase both package and install them on this very same computer months ago (back when it was a well behaved Windows 7 PC). Ok under a different account name. So I went back to the original account (which can not access the Wifi system here on Norfolk and while Aftershot pro seems ok, One One is still refusing to work and now lightroom is having tantrums as well disappearing into silence. So I have a very sick windows 10 upgrade on a decent computer gobbling up the software applications I want to use. NOT HAPPY

At least Picasa and Paint.net have not deserted me (yet!)

To rub salt into the wound Dropbox has just sent me a message that it is not able to synchronize.

And of course I don’t travel with the registration keys and installation packages for all my software so I’m feeling very abandoned,

My Norfolk Album on Flickr

Its been a few days trying to figure out how to get Open Live Writer going (without downloading a new version in the very low band width). Trying to get photos loaded to google photo via theiw web interface upload was a joke (How I miss that conserve bandwidth button in picasa). The one reliable thing was the web based upload to flickr. So I have been able to keep up my daily photo posts going. Click on the photo above to see my album grow,

Traveling with a Windows 10 Liability in Low Bandwidth

Perhaps I should have known better, but I took my “limp along” upgraded to windows 10 laptop as my only computer on this trip, into a very low band width location. This is actually the best of my laptops the other two are effectively dead since upgrading to windows 10. On Norfolk Island you can buy a sim card easily enough but it is limited to voice and text (ie pre-3G no data). They do however have a good system where several locations in town and many hotels and accommodation place with also have wifi hot spot, for which you can purchase reasonably priced temporary access. This works fine for phone and tablets… BUT…

One Issue I didn’t realise was a problem with my laptop in its “ghost of window 7” state was that I could not change the wifi or connect to a new Wifi because that capability was replaced with the new windows app, which I can not access. Many hours of puzzling later I discovered that I could set up a new user and get to connect to the wifi. However most of the software I wanted to use like OnOne 10, Aftershot pro, corel painter and a long list including Windows office 10 what to reinstall itself, re register or some other on-line setup process… BUT … I can’t get on-line yet!

With considerable re-logging in between by two accounts I was finally able to do a tiny bit of on-line things, like email and upload a couple of photos till the computer locked up …. I suspect it was and automatic update. Now I can’t get on-line anymore, and I have to set up yet another new user. Now I discovered if I leave that account connected on-line, sign out, go back to my original account to do any work on my photos etc. then re-sign in to the new account to upload that work. I have to leave the laptop in sleep mode between all this run around. This is a joke. BUT ...

I AM NOT AMMUSED

The school fare was most enjoyable on a warm balmy night and the fish (freshly caught) & chips especially delicious

HDR Sunset

Packing for Travel

 
I’m about to start a period of extended travel and I’m doing a final pack. I intend to take a trimmed down version of my fold out studio, two cameras, a tripod and a laptop. The challenge is to get the “studio” (darker blue travel bag) and supplies (in the light blue folio) and the portable tripod (black tubular bag) into my case. Not a lot of room for clothes! That space also has to house battery & phone charges, wifi modem, spare cables and a chromecast dongle etc. However it all fits and only 16kg all up with clothes and shoes, should be airline friendly. I will be carrying my laptop, USB drive (for ongoing backup) and extra camera body in a backpack and the lenses and first body in my camera bag (collectively another 6kg). So I can easily hand carry everything if necessary. However the proof of wise packing will unfold as I go along. Let’s hope I have all that I want and not too much more.

Sharing :: That feeling of being backed into a corner

Recent change over at google and flickr … and seems like everywhere else as well, have seen me seriously looking for alternative to where I can post photos for blog post and the best place to share on social sites. I was starting to warm to flickr, and use their auto uploadr to make my life simpler contributing to my daily photo album. Loosing that isn’t such a big deal but  the way it was done does diminish trust. Further my trust has pretty well also been savaged by google changes.

So What do I do?

1) Blogging, I went looking for automatic uploads (to both Flickr and Google Photo, without using their native apps). This seemed simple because most programs now have social share with options. A lot have the flickr symbol and a few have google+. Well guess what I tried out all of my photo managers and only one of them work to flickr (and that's ACDsee, which I am only trialing anyway) and that actually used two steps where it invokes the old flickr web up loader, then let the web loader do the upload but it worked. Picasa sort of works to google photos but its a maze to then find to where they are stored. The new Open Live writer, works just fine with google photos, so I am happy to continue with that, but none of the photo managers offers an inbuilt upload to google photo. I even went back to withknow, and the Idea of re-establishing the POSSE approach, and the upload to flickr doesn’t work! (the twitter link does still work). I’m having a little more success uploading to Tumblr but its not a compelling enough platform to change to, and I will just keep experimenting with it for my (not exactly) daily sketches.

So its Open Live Writer to google photos when I blogging and flickr “manual” web uploader and then embedded to blog or just get a link to share as an optional extra.

 

2) Social Sharing, well I could not find anything that does what a want except DropBox. There are cross posting icons everywhere but that means public sharing. My trouble is I don’t want to share with the world (those images are dealt with in option 1 above, Flickr and google photos are my only face to the world) so I’m abandoning all the social media share hysteria. I’m just going back to using drop box which I know I can share with a specific person (or people). Drop box isn’t totally photo friendly but it is very easy to use, both on phones and computers. If thats not suitable for the recipient or time is very tight its back to resizing down and using either MMS of email.

So its dropbox, MMS or email for sharing family photos. Further I’m adopting similar approach with friends and potential purchasers of my art, none of whom have yet complained.

PhotoFriday :: Powerful

For PhotoFriday‘s topic Powerful

Another Upload Hiccup

A group of little Musk Lorikeets, have been feeding on some local gum trees (which normally have finished flowering by now but are flourishing now). These small parrots are really fast flyers and tend to inhabit the upper branches of trees, thus a challenge to photograph. I noticed a few squawking on a lower branch so I grabbed my long lens and camera and collected several photos most of which had the their heads buried in the foliage. I came straight inside and using Aftershot Pro and the Perfectly Clear Filter and had an image ready to upload in approximately 5 minutes (including upload to the card via Picasa). I then copied the processed image over to my directory that Flickr’s Uploadr monitors and heard the tone associated with the Uploadr App, I lefty thinking the photo had been uploaded and went and lunch. After lunch I checked and no photo on flickr, looking at the app log it reported it was being processed on the server. Ok perhaps I need to wait. Five hours later I decided to upload manually. Perhaps flickr are shutting down the uploadr early.

Glossopsitta concinna

Best laid plans …

All to often if you are chasing creativity, you can get struck in a rut. Today was really wet and overcast most of the day but the sun broke through for a few brief moments so I grabbed my polarizing filter and headed out to try and photograph a rainbow and see if I could enhance the colours using the polarizer (because the rainbow colours are reflected and thus polarized light I was convinced I should be able to darken the sky but brighten the rainbow). Despite dodging sun showers and cold winds I saw no rainbows. One the way back inside I saw my cretaceous garden was beautifully backlit for a just few moments and the revived gingko looked resplendent in its refreshed green.

I think it was Matt Kloskowski that once said if you see good light you must photograph it. Not a wonderful composition or compelling subject but the light was terrific enough to become my photo of the day.

Moral :: Don’t try to plan creativity