Hurricane preparation

Here are some quick photos from our town today.  There aren't many people here and many of the businesses were boarded up.  We went to a neighboring town, too--I'll post photos from there tomorrow.  It's looking like the hurricane will miss us for the most part--we may get a little wind and rain, but that should be it.

Black and white conversions

OK--I converted this photo to b&w three different ways, and honestly don't see much difference.


This one I desaturated:


This one I converted to grayscale:


And this one I removed the color:


I see some difference in the one that I converted to grayscale, but not much--and none between the other two.  Is it just me? Does it matter how I do it?  Are there advantages to any of them?

4 versions

SOOC:


This one, I added a gradient layer and colorized it in a hue/ sat layer (and adjusted the hue and saturation), then adjusted levels and contrast:


This one, I removed the color, bumped up the contrast, then added a diffuse glow filter:


This one, I just removed the color and bumped up the contrast:


For some reason, there is more difference in the appearance of these last two images in PSE than is showing up on here, but nevertheless, these are the different methods I've tried to convert this to b&w.  CC welcome. :-)

B&W conversions

OK--so which do you like better--color or b&w?

Snaggle-toothed

K lost her other top middle tooth yesterday--well, technically, it was taken from her. The dentist actually had to pull it, but he's a good dentist, so it was painless. At any rate, she is now snaggle-toothed. :-)

Black and white

After reading that quote the other day, I went back and looked at the photos I took of my nephew a couple of weeks ago and removed the color from them (as well as working on the light and contrast a bit).  Which do you like better--color or black and white?

Friends

We visited some friends today--and I took a few pictures (I know--shocking).  

L is quite attached to her cowgirl hat lately, so I had to get one of her in it--but I had to move fast (because she does) and only got her from the back.

Is he cute or what??  People keep telling me he cries a lot and keeps them up at night, but every time I see this little man, he's eating, sleeping, or smiling. :-)

Something to think about

When you photograph people in colour you photograph their clothes.  But when you photograph people in B&W, you photograph their souls!  ~Ted Grant

Party

We went to a party last night for a friend's birthday. Lots of fun. :-)  And plenty of people to photograph!

Dogs

We got J a new puppy last week.  Her name is Shelby and she is cute as cute can be.  Here she is on his lap.

Here is Jonah--eating a snack.  E thought he looked like he was ready for some food with that bandana around his neck, so she had to get him some treats and asked me to photograph the whole deal.

  

Nephew

Here are some photos I took of my nephew this weekend--keep in mind he was not in favor of having Aunt C photograph him.  In the one with his mouth open, he was telling me NO!  :-)