I was taking the ferry over to Norfolk one afternoon when I spotted another passenger standing by the railing, looking out into the harbor. The scene had possibilities, so I quietly put my fisheye lens on my phone and snapped this photo.

It looks like the processing was straightforward, but it wasn’t. The scene was too contrasty as captured; I had to lighten the shadows under the canopy to bring out the texture of the wooden benches. Once I did that, everything fell into place.

I was taking an evening Photoshop class at the TCC Visual Art Center in Olde Towne, Portsmouth, Virginia. I looked down High Street on the way back to my car. It had been raining, and the reflections caught my eye, so I whipped out my phone and grabbed a few shots. There wasn’t much color, but the lighting was perfect for black and white.

I had to fiddle around a bit more than usual during processing. First, I straightened the horizontals and verticals, then I cropped a little. After converting to black and white I made it look like it was shot on film. Finally, I increased the contrast to bring out the reflections on the brick sidewalk.

Inspiration can come at any moment, and I’m often inspired by everyday things. That was the case here.

I created this close-up of slotted spoons the other day. I saw the finished photo in my mind’s eye while doing the dishes and got out my phone. The processing is pretty straightforward: I rotated the image a little, cropped it a bit, and converted it to black and white to remove any color from the reflections.