This week, Egidio shares his first challenge as a team member. With this theme, he is sure to get a warm welcome. He writes, “For this week’s challenge, I invite you to look at your photos or capture new images showing how warm colors appear in your world and their emotional significance to you. Hopefully, the images I share here will spark your imagination. Tell us how your images made you feel when you captured them. You can concentrate on a single color or show a variety of colors, but please make warm colors the main focus.” You can read his entire challenge post here.
As I reviewed my gallery of edited photos, one image stood out having many memories of good times. For a little over a decade, we owned a home in Buckeye, Arizona, and traveled there every winter. We decided to purchase a used convertible so we could have a vehicle more in tune with the Arizona vibes. A friend put his 2004 Mustang convertible up for sale on Facebook and I was quick to take it off his hands. That year we drove it to Arizona and it stayed there until we sold it when we decided to sell our house there. In this image, we were going to explore the nearby desert and I stopped for gas just as the sun came up. A Cell phone picture captured the moment.
On a journey home from the Grand Tetons, we found a road less traveled, again to avoid the Interstate. We didn’t expect the beauty we found driving through Wyoming’s Wind River Country. Just one of the autumn sights was this beautiful stand of trees showing off their fall colors.
A stand of orange and yellow flowers attracted my attention at the Denver Botanical Garden in Colorado. For one exercise in photo editing, I cropped the image and ran it through a couple of Photoshop filters. The goal in this case was to create an impressionistic view of the garden scene.
The next three shots are all edited to focus on the warm colors. Each of the next three images was edited in Lightroom Classis to emphasize the warm colors in the image. The sunflower field in eastern North Dakota was mature and ready for harvest. I did very little to enhance the bright, warm colors in the late afternoon. Instead, I used the HSL color sliders to back off the greens in the image leaving the leaves of the plants almost in black-and-white. Removing or dampening unwanted colors gives the desired colors emphasis without making them oversaturated or garish.
In our Arizona backyard, I planted an orange tree when we moved in. The crops were variable from the tree over the years, but in one particularly fruitful year, I captured this cluster of oranges. Using the HSL sliders in Lightroom Classic, again I reduced all of the cooler colors to almost black-and-white leaving the orange subjects standing out.
Another plant in our Arizona backyard that brought color every year was an Orange Jubilee plant. I used the HSL slider to de-emphasize the cooler colors, in this case, to create a completely black-and-white background. If you have Lightroom Classic and you are looking for the HSL sliders, they were moved in version 13 of Lightroom Classic to the Mixer tab of the Color Mixer panel.
In 2006, we made our first trip to Mexico where our son and his bride tied the knot. We stayed for a few days at Mazatlán and would make several trips there in the winter over the next few years. It was in 2006 we were on the beach during the golden hour. As the sun sank behind Bird Island (Isla de Pájaros), the sky took on an extra warm tone resulting in one of my favorite images of Mexico.
Welcome aboard, Egitio! Yours is a great introductory challenge. I look forward to your take on upcoming challenges. Next week it’s Anne’s turn to challenge us. If you’d like to join the challenge, Check Egidio’s page here for tips on joining in the fun.
Fabulous fruits and flowers!
Thanks, Margaret!
Lovely warm colors John, Wind River Country, Wyoming was my favorite although I always enjoy a lovely sunset
Wind River is a place I need to revisit. Thanks, Ritva!
Clever idea to desaturate the leaves etc in those shots! But my favourites are the Wind River one and the sunflowers 🌻
Thanks, Sarah! That’s a trick I learned by accident one day while playing with the sliders. >grin<
The oranges … caught warm sunlight.
Indeed!
Lovelu the oranges and sunflowers! Beautiful sunset capture.
Thanks, Amy!
You certainly captured warmth in this challenge response. I loved the colors and textures. That sunset, WOW!
Thanks, Anne! Fun challenge.
Thanks for entering the challenge, John. Wow! Even that McDonald in the background looks good with a red Mustang in the foreground. That sky is awesome, too. As always, the nature shots always grab my attention. I love what you did with the orange tree and HSL sliders. Closing your post with a sunset was perfect. Great post!
Thanks, Egidio! Great challenge theme.
I can see why that last photos is a favorite of Mexico. Brilliant! Such a warmth in all the photos John. I love impressionistic view of the flowers at the Denver Botanical Garden. I have forgotten the Latin name for them, because they were favorites of mine in WA, and we called them candy corn plants. Lots of warmth, and I enjoyed your editing guidance.
Thanks, Donna. I’m not sure I ever knew the name of those plants. Pretty typical of me.
great examples on this challenge John. that Mazatlan sunset capture is amazing! warm colors sure make themselves easy to photograph 🙂
– Archer
easy to want to photograph I mean!
Nice Mustang!!! I adore your warm colors 😀
Thanks, Cee!
Thank you John. Beautiful pictures.
Thanks, Eithnea!
Great warms John 🙂
Thanks, Brian!
Beautiful photos – love the sunflowers!!
Thanks, Nora!
Fab examples, John, for this challenge.
The Orange Pony click, my favourite.
Thanks, Philo!
Welcome, John.
Love the sunflowers, John!
Thanks, Jo!
How I loved that first picture. An Arizona sunrise and that Hot Car! Wowza!
Thanks for all the warm photos. We have oranges this year, and our hearts are filled with a warm glow!
Thanks for sharing! Enjoy your weekend!
One of our joys of living our winters in Arizona was the ability to pick oranges from our own tree. We couldn’t do it every year, but most years were successful.
I so miss our Mustang convertible, but North Dakota isn’t conducive to the breed. >grin<
Right you are! 😄
[…] Lens-Artist Photo-Challenge John:…Warm-Colours […]
Great post John – love your little mustang – why am I not surprised you’d go with hot red?!?! Your sunflowers warmed my heart and I loved the closing image, especially when I read about its significance. Terrific challenge response
Thanks, Tina!
A different side to your photography and I’ve enjoyed your nature photos so much, John. Your last one is stunning, perfect timing for a more unusual composition.
Thanks, Sofia! One of the things I like about these challenges is that they cause me to think about something other than landscape or cityscapes.
Great post with beautiful photos!
Thanks, Hien!
Your readers all had different favorites. That’s amazing because it means they are all fabulous. Art is definitely subjective. My personal favorite is Impressions, but you can’t go wrong with a sunset and a red car. The oranges look like they’ve been washed and are ready to eat. Yum!
Thanks for the compliment, Marsha!
You’re welcome. 🙂 See you soon!