Never believe a weatherman. They promised me rain today, and I had a whole series of locations lined up for some rainy day shots. I had my photographic heart set on a really nice b&w scene at a train station or bus stop. I did my part. I had my camera and rain gear ready. The weatherman, on the other hand, dropped the ball big time. Instead of rain, we had a cloudy, but windy and cool kind of day. Who wants to see people standing at a bus stop on a cloudy day? I need rain, man. Rain! Anyway, with nothing in mind I went over to Lincoln Woods hoping to catch folks fishing or kayaking. The place was virtually empty of people. Fortunately, on my way out, I stumbled across this small family of Canada Geese grazing by the pond. I'm always fascinated by the way there is always one adult standing guard. Not the shot I had in mind, but I'll take it.
Processing got a bit complex. I ran this through a brilliant warm filter in Topaz Adjust. From there I adjusted the levels a bit and then toned the saturation down a hair. The warm filter worked well on everything except the grass, so but toning the saturation down fixed that. I then added a deep blue photo filter to the water. The foreground was still a bit too dark, though, so I applied a levels adjustment to everything below the water, leaving the far bank and trees untouched. It was a bit of work, but the end result is what I wanted.
