One of my growing areas as a photographer is my skill to process a digital image. I spent a lot of time in my formative years using transparency film, "slides". The emphasis is those days was framing the photo exactly, exposing the film exactly, and being very careful to eliminate unwanted things in your photos, from stray branches to litter. I still try to do that, but that is just the beginning with digital images. After the exposure is completed, there are a million things you can do to that image: crop, change the color temperature, change the tone values of light and dark, intensify certain colors or restrain them. And best of all, you can change it again and again. I shot this photo at the Missouri Botanical Garden several years ago. I'm still working on it.

Yes, I am a reflective person, pondering what is past, and wondering about "why" and "what if". Hopefully, I can see something new in what has already been.

This was the original photo:

Every night in Nashville, at least when the sky is lit up with a sunset. The lights come on in countless buildings, some are offices, apartments, hotel rooms, stores, and of course, music venues. Nashville is a growing, vibrant city. We live 25 minutes south of downtown,  close enough to visit, and far away enough to enjoy the solitude. I took this photo last November on a beautiful evening. I'm privileged to live here.

Emmett Kelly, known also as Weary Willie, was a famous clown of the early 20's stretching into the 1950's, He was born in Kansas, died in Sarasota, but is buried in Indiana. Peru certainly has a claim on him as well. He started performing in the circus as a trapeze artist in one of the circuses that wintered in my hometown, Peru, Indiana. So the character of Weary Willie shows up in Peru a lot during the Festival and portrayed by more than one person. Here, he is feigning hunger and one of the boys watching the parade offers him a candy sucker. This moment unfolded rather quickly as I was more intent on photographing the clown. But the little boy's outstretched arm completes the scene.

We recently visited the historic river town of Madison, Indiana, and as a friend advises: "When you are on vacation, eat ice cream." So, instead of supper, we went looking for ice cream. I pulled into the parking lot across the street from one of  the ice cream parlors on Main Street., and saw this scene right in front of me. The green brick wall with the two windows is completed by the shadow of the lamp post  I could say that I worked this scene and took dozens of photos, but the truth is I made just this one image.

Would I have been drawn to the windows without the shadow of the lamp? I don't know, but I doubt that I would have the same urgency to photograph the scene. Sometimes, just one element completes the scene, finishes it in an entirely different way. A different feeling is conveyed with the shadow.

Madison is one of the most picturesque places, with an abundance of photographic oppportunities. It is a fun town to roam with a camera.

I shoot raw images which means that I prefer to process my images rather than allow my excellent camera to do it when I push the shutter. So what that means to me is that I can return to this image that I took 10 years ago this coming October in Minnesota along the shore of Lake Superior. I have more skill to process my image and better tools so I can use the raw image I captured and process it so that it depicts the original scene as I remember it.

The photo below is the raw image without any processing. I used to be disappointed when I saw this on the computer screen, not realizing that it had all the data contained within so that I could eventually bring forth the scene when I first saw it.

The botanical name for this plant is "hellebore", an evergreen perennial plant that blooms in the winter and early spring. Despite the name they are not related to the rose family. They are frost resistant and grow well in the shade. We almost bought some at the Lawn and Garden Show in late February. They are quite prolific under the dogwood trees at Cheekwood.

I met a painter in the parking lot and as we greeted one another, we each remarked what a glorious day it was. I noted that the flowers and trees were beautiful. Yes, she said, but wait until you walk down the hill behind the visitor center. The tulips are blooming, and the hyacinths. And she said, be sure to smell the beauty. Oh, my. She was more than right.

These three kids were sitting on the ready made seat at the top of this small waterfall. The water ran down the hillside and I suspect that the stream was created by water pumped from the lake up the hill near the Cheekwood and then released to go down the manmade creek, eventually emptying into the lake again. And these kids were having the time of their lives sitting in the water, soaked all but the upper part of their shirts. But we wondered, isn't that water cold? Apparently, not to them.