Sunlight

An oft repeated rule of photography is that the best time to take photos is half hour before sunrise (and maybe after sunrise) and half hour before sunset. Normally, I ignore this rule. Especially during the school year-- I would just take photos when I could. However, as it is summer, I have a bit more leeway as to when to take photos. And, as much as I don't like to admit it, photos right after sunrise have a beautiful quality to them.

The sun has this fresh, illuminating quality that really highlights my backyard. Granted, these photos were taken slightly more than just a half hour after sunrise, but still, the idea holds.

Also, I wanted to post a small before/after Photoshop picture. A lot of people think that when you 'Photoshop' a photo it becomes more 'fake' as though you are taking away some inherent quality of the photo. I mostly use photoshop as a way to enhance what's there naturally. Sometimes when I take a photo, the picture on the computer screen doesn't match up with what my eyes see. So, I edit it slightly in Photoshop to bring out its beauty.

Before:

After:

...granted this was slightly more than a little editing ;) still, I wished to bring the color out.