Shoppin the Photos

I am trying to improve my photo shopping skills and I'm not sure if its working or not, but I'm having fun anyways.

I took several pictures in Mammoth when we went there a few weeks ago and really liked a lot of shots I got. It is easy when the scenery is so beautiful! Here is a picture I took at Mono Lake. The rock formations are called Tufas and wikipedia tells me Tufas are "rough, thick, rock-like calcium carbonate deposit that forms by precipitation from bodies of water with a high dissolved calcium content." I just thought they were cool looking.


I decided to turn it into black and white because there is so much contrast in the picture with the rock formations, and so this is what I got when the computer took away the color.


Then I realized there was an option to chose the filter type I wanted to use to convert it to black and white. Default was blue, but I could also try yellow, green and red too. My photo class from high school was starting to come back to me and as I tried the different filters I got this picture by using the red filter.

I think I need to do some more research on this to see what else I can do to improve my pictures. I'll make sure to get to that right after I finish Christmas decorating and shopping, plan a wedding and get all my school work done. Hmmmm, this could take a while.