I guess this is a form of art. Rather unusual but eye catching for sure.
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Wow⌠Thatâs beautiful countryside. Nice!
Right now in the deep south US itâs just ⌠ick⌠Our winter âcoldâ weather down here (or what passes for it) doesnât include anything pretty like snow. Just dead plants, overcast skies and usually rain. Kinda ugly.
But thatâs a beautiful scene with great light!
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Looks like a nice place for a walk. I envy you folks with actual scenery in your area. 
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@lphilpot I bet that you have them as well!
Your eyes just have to re-tune :-)))
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For me things here look often boring. The woods are mostly plantations, the sky is often gray. But today the sky was clear and the winter sun gave a very pleasant light. I just took out my camera to be ready because a little further is a lake with some interesting birds. So, I took this snapshot when the lady was walking by.
I think @Claes is right, we have to retune our vision âŚ
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I envy you folks with actual scenery in your area.
Well⌠We have lived in this little village since December 1970.
Thatâs 52 years now. Just to the South of our garden is something called the Village Woods, with a lot of foot paths, which we have trodden for (you guessed it) 52 years.
After having viewed a lot of Boris â Why use one instance of a module when you can have eighteen⢠â Hajdukovicâs skilled tutorials on darktable, one day it just hit me, when trodding one of those foot paths: I wonder how Boris would have treated this?
I did have some âactual sceneryâ nearby. I just had to âseeâ it.
Have fun!
Claes in Lund, Sweden
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Like these a lot, especially the chickens and the rooster
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Iâve been out in our woods with my camera a few times, but most of our publicly accessible forest is dense pine, with very dense undergrowth. You almost need a machete or something to hack your way through some of it. No footpaths except for a few hiking trails here and there.
But I did take a shot this afternoon of an interesting tree in the mid-late afternoon sun. Looks like a serious skin condition up close.
Iâm generally not a big B&W guy but hereâs a monochrome version:
These quasi- / semi- / pseudo-macro shots are always frustrating due to DOF issues.
Canon T8i / 850D, Sigma 17-70 DC Macro, ART, Affinity Photo
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Here is a picture from my walk on Sunday. I wish you all happy holidays and (more) peace for the world for the New Year.
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Sweet old gentleman
We adopted big-boy Boom (short for Boomhauer) about 5 1/2 years ago as an adult, from a literally broken home situation. We didnât know for sure, so at the time we â our veterinarian included â assumed he was about three years old, Now, we realize we underestimated and heâs probably more like 12 at least. In the past year heâs started losing weight and is now slightly less than half his previous top weight (which to be fair was a little heavy). Exams have suggested possibly IBS or lymphoma, but nothing conclusive. It wouldnât be fair to him to undergo exploratory surgery just to confirm we canât really do anything about his condition. He shows no indication of pain, just lots of affection. He seems to be comfortable and content.
So weâre making the most of the time we still have, since itâs pretty clear a long countdown is underway. These days he pretty much gets what he wants⌠Which is lap snuggles, shared naps and in-between-meal snacks.
(Google Pixel 4a shot cleaned up in Affinity Photo)
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Baby, itâs cold outside!
I went to my favorite pond and came across pack of gigantic feather dusters - actually Canada geese - huddled together on the ice and waiting for the December sunrise. I was a little concerned over this one, who unlike the others, was covered in frost. But soon afterwards he woke up and shook it off after a plunge in the water. Having spent the night in the safety and comfort of each otherâs presence, they all began to angrily bicker and peck at one another and noisily took off en masse to start their day.
Targeted sharpening with Diffuse and Sharpen on darktable helped to bring out his icy feathers.
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When you say cleaned up I am curious as a pixel owner what you have done in AffinityâŚ
Maybe I shouldâve said âtouched upâ.
The background was a bit too bright, some of his white fur was almost blown out, his eyes were too dark, the color of his nose was too pale, etc. I adjusted all that in Photo and cloned out a tiny distracting spot in the upper right corner. Itâs not that the image was bad, per se, just needed adjustment. It was a JPG, shot with the Google camera app. I have OpenCamera installed, but didnât think to use it for this shot.
Something of a different subject matter for meâŚ
This was shot in August 2021 when Union Pacificâs âBig Boyâ 4014 stopped for a few minutes in Bunkie, Louisiana, about 45 minutes from my home. My daughter and I drove down to check him (her?) out, in the very humid Louisiana mid-summer morning heat. This was part of a much longer trip for Big Boy and crew, and it was en route back to Montana (Wyoming?) IIRC.
At any rate, there was a large crowd on hand and it was exceedingly difficult to get any reasonable shots. This is a crop of a âover the crowdâs headâ snap, but I like how it turned out. So what do you think? Color, (subtly tinted) monochrome or somewhere in between? Iâm kinda leaning toward the latterâŚ
Anyone want heavy metal? We got your heavy metal right here!! All 1.2 million pounds of it (544K kg).
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I like all three! Possibly slightly in favour of the full colour version (at this moment).
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