The One Percent

A few month back I wrote about The 99%, The work that we do that we just don't like. This post is about one of my One Percent. This Image has become my signature image. You may have seen it on my blog and website. So how did it become one of my One Percent. (make sure to take The Rest Of The Journey to see more pics)
Well I like Love lilies. I don't know why, maybe its because they are delicate, yet still tough, with fairly thick petals, and nice texture. So when my wife brought home some flowers to lighten up the house, and there were lilies in the arrangement, I couldn't resist. I wasn't prepared to take the shot, I didn't have a good place to shoot them, or decent light, and I was kinda of tired, but I tried. I set the entire arrangement on the kitchen table and started to try to soot them in my style. I did horribly, I took several shots, and decided to relegate them to the 99% pile. At the time my computer had just died, and I had no idea when, or if I would be working in Photoshop again. So for over a year the flowers sat and I didn't even think about them. then one day for whatever reason I went to work on them. I had no clue how to make my self happy with the color image, I tried and I tried, and gave up. Now it was time to see what I could do in black and white, so using a b/w adjustment layer, I tweaked and tweaked, with out really having a plan until I got it as good as I could. Still not happy, but not willing to give up, I started to play with the opacity of the b/w layer, and was surprised at the results. I was happy. after an adjustment here and there, I was ready to move it to the One Percent pile.

Origional

Full Color

B/W