week nine beyond layers - beautiful black and white

happy st. patricks's day to all of you.  it's not green here - rain and snow mix, but i couldn't ask
for anything better... gave me time to play with the blk and wht conversion techniques.
this first photo i took today but the rest are from my stash.  i went searching for high contrast
photos with either lines, texture, tones - something i thought would convert to blk and wht.
i found so many... after playing most of the afternoon, these turned out to be my favorites.
hope you enjoy the beautiful black and whites as much as i enjoyed spending time tweaking
and learning different techniques.  all photos have kim klassen's texture from beyond layers "aurora"
and what a great texture this one is - thank you kim.

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quote reads:
May your pockets be heavy
and your heart be light.
And may good luck pursue you
each morning and night.

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had to give my tree photo another run through.  not a lot of difference but
i like this one best.  i really love how all the different size branches pop

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this one i took last winter (when we actually had snow)
max has such great contract, tones and texture in his coat
it made this conversion fun to do

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and i'll finish this post with a picture of one of my favorite flowers...
the peony - shot last spring in my garden

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