For Day 28 of the 30 Day Photo Challenge, I headed outside again. I was having a very blah day after yesterday’s storm, but once outside, the post-gray weather couldn’t help but cheer me up a little. I took to the yard to see what I could find and, looking up at the beautiful blue sky, I noticed a very gnarled tree in my line of sight. How had I never noticed how funky and knotted the thing was, especially still in its winter stage with no leaves?

Since the tree made me feel small standing next to it, I snapped a couple shots looking up from the base. I love this photo project because it has really challenged me to see everything in a new way. I opened my favorite shot (pictured above) in Photoshop to adjust the levels a bit. I basically wanted to enhance the shadows more to give it the look of a tree that might appear in a gothic Tim Burton movie. (Anyone else thinking “Edward Scissorhands” or “Nightmare Before Christmas”?)

After I was finished with the photo, I played around with the hue to see what kinds of cool things I could come up with. I instantly fell in love with the yellow version of this tree shot, but I decided the blue sky original background would win out for my photo for today. But since I loved the yellow one so much I decided to incorporate it into an Andy Warhol type tribute to this funky tree!

(Click image to view larger.)