"Cold" - One Last Look

Today is actually the beginning of a new weekly assignment, but I wanted to take one last look at "Cold" before moving on to "Breakfast".

We were expecting snow on Friday and Saturday, so before that madness started The Robb decided to take the girls outside for some exercise. I stayed inside with The Boy until he went down for his nap. When I wandered outside to see what they were all up to, I found the fire.

I bought this little fire pit a few years ago. I had grand plans that we'd use it on chilly autumn evenings to snuggle up and enjoy some spiced rum drinks.

First of all, The Robb would rather have a root canal than drink anything involving spiced rum.

Second, I am not sure whose life I thought I was living that would give me the time to spend idly contemplating a fire, however romantic.

It is pretty though. Fire is definitely a mesmerizing animal.

After about seventy shots of the flames and at least 30 more of Number One bundled into adorable winter jacket, I took this photo.

I liked it because it was appropriately wintery, but not blinding with white snow. (I'm going to have to learn a whole lot more about photography before I dare to take a photo with an overwhelming amount of white.)

This morning I was reading up on composition rules and was reminded again about "The Rule of Thirds".

Oops. Such a basic one, but I was focused on trying to make some interesting lines with the trees that I forgot to frame the fire pit.

When I opened the photo on my computer I cropped the photo to make it more interesting.

I like it, but I still felt the photo was a little cluttered. When I look at it I am sure that I'm supposed to focus on the flames (I wish I had thought to take the grate off of the fire pit, by the way), but I'm distracted by the stuff in the background.

I fiddled with a few settings and buttons and I came up with this:

Normally I don't like photos that are partially in black and white. I see it too often with wedding photos and baby portraits. It often comes across as a forced attempt at drama.

I'm not in love with how this photo came out either, but I do think it's a step up from the original. Next time I'll have to take more time with my composition so that I don't have to rely so much on using tricks to fix the photo later.

This week's assignment is "Breakfast". I have a few ideas, and I have taken a few different approaches to the theme, but I'm still waiting for my epiphany.

Please let me know if you have seen it.