Bamboo Art

I have a bamboo plant that Deborah gave me two years ago. About once a week I look at it and think "there is a photo in there somewhere" and then go on to something else. Last Friday I noticed it was needing a little sun so I put it on a window sill. I went back to check on it and found that image. It was framed in the window against some blinds. Talking about an image jumping out to you. Wow!!!

Anyway I grabbed my camera with the 70-200 and started shooting. I set my white balance for sunlight and let the camera find the right exposure. It worked pretty well.


The Original Image is above.

I did a bit of work on these. I got my color right and close to the contrast I wanted. I then used Desaturate(in Photoshop go to Image, pull down to Adjustments, then to Desaturate.) I used the history brush to paint in the black and white area. I wanted to keep the color in the leaves, ribbon and the blue rocks. I used Levels to wash out the background. Pretty much the same for both images.



I still feel a twinge of guilt any time I do this much manipulation in a photograph. These are for the wall at home, and not for the newspaper, but still a photojournalist first.