Happy Sunday! This week, Amy is the lovely hostess of the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge and we are focusing on contrasts this week.

I will have to open this week’s post with this picture, taken a few days ago right after a 2-day storm. It seems like 2-day storms have become more frequent in my neck of the woods this year. The first day is always a big cool down in temperatures followed by the dramatic entrance of rain. It seems like Mother Nature loves to make dramatic entrances. The second day is always, “When are you going to stop?!”

It looks like Mother Nature loves her dramatic exits, too, because I can never resist a good photo session of the sunset after a rainstorm. The fiery orange against a backdrop of trees and houses sends the message, “Thank you for your tolerance of my behavior.”

Of course, there’s no talking about contrasts without popping a black and white photo in here. I shot this photo at the beach in California. It wasn’t a difficult shot but the timing is everything if I want to get the photo I saw in my head. I can’t remember how many shots I’ve taken and how many times I view each photo before landing on this one but I guess some photos do take a while to make.

Finally, I think flowers contrast nicely against a black background, don’t you think?

I shot my first picture of a fake rose against a black background in 2019. I don’t remember how I edited the picture. All I know is there was no Lightroom involved. I shot the photo at night by placing the rose on my desk and lighting it by shining a lamp at it – an old-fashion DIY. I’ve been looking to doing another one since then.

These days, with Lightroom, I no longer need to DIY with a dark room and a lamp. I can take the picture of a flower and remove the background. I like how it looks as I feel the background presents too much of a distraction sometimes to allow the viewer to see the detail of the photo.