Having made a commitment to post daily photos this year (and not wanting to give up at the end of January), I am taking my point and shoot and my personal laptop with me. In that spirit, I’m posting a quick shot of my traveling companion!

I was in the grocery store tonight and saw many neat rows of what I believe was salad dressing. While it may not be the typical subject, I really like the effect of monochrome on repeating patterns. I took two shots and like the one above the best. I’m attaching the outtake as well in case anyone is interested (clicking on it will make it larger and easier to view).

I’ve seen many people take shots like this and always wanted to try it. Finally, with our monochrome challenge, I figured that black and white text might just make the perfect subject! After a simple conversion to black and white, I realized that it was simply too dull. Adding the reddish tint really brought out the textures to my eye.

I’m really liking the freedom that black and white gives. Even the most ordinary items can be made to look interesting. This was done completely in Adobe Lightroom 3. Converted to black and white, and then added the selective color back in using the split toning adjustments. Truly powerful once you get the hang of them.

As some may have noticed, my wife and I have stopped doing the ROYGBIV daily photo theme (as discussed at the beginning of January). While we had originally planned to stick with the theme for four weeks, we decided that after three weeks, we were no longer inspired to simply take photos of items for no other reason than they had the prescribed color. Therefore, we’ve decided to finish out January with a week of monochromatic shots.

This shot originally had a pure blue sky for a background. And while I really liked it, I just felt like something a bit more visually interesting. Hopefully, I’ve succeeded!

I’ve noticed this last leaf hanging on for a week in morning’s half dawn. I was sure it would fall off before I’d actually be home with available daylight. Thankfully, today was absolutely beautiful and sunny so I took the opportunity to get the long anticipated shot!