Grass

Grass
Originally uploaded by doug_r

This image was made in the late summer of 2006 at the Bellevue Botanical Garden in Bellvue, Washington. It was late afternoon and the light was quite harsh but this image still seemed to work because of the depth of shadows on the fine grained grass seemed to break up the glare of the light a bit.

I've been wanting to go back and play with this image ever since I took it. Yesterday I finally did, and this is the result.

The processing follows the usual steps:
1) Levels
2) Curves
3) Mild Sharpening
3) B/W conversion*
4) Levels
5) Toning
6) Mild Sharpening

* Note: the black and hhite conversion was done in Nik Silver Effects using a film grain simulator to give the image a very fine grain. Additionally, a very mild green filter was applied to improve the contrast on some of the grasses.

I like this image alot. The Mexican Needle Grass is so fine that it stirs in the slightest breeze. I thought it was interesting how even when still, it gives the slightly illusion of motion.