Furry Friends Friday ~ Texas Johnston

I took this side portrait of Tex yesterday while we were outside with the butterflies. Poor guy deserves a post just about him today. Earlier in the week he suffered a pretty grusome injury - he, somehow or another, tore out one of his back toe nails (well, the toenail is still there, but barely hanging on). We took him to our Vet, but he didn't want to inflect more pain or stress on Tex by "finishing the job" so to speak. He just told us to give it time; that the nail would either fall off on its own or that Tex would pull it off himself when it was ready. Yikes!   It still looks pretty gross, but thankfully it is getting better.   He's feeling well enough to go outside again and also well enough to stalk butterflies with me.  So, I think that's a pretty good sign.

I like this picture of Tex so much that I played around with it in Photoshop a little this morning. I just tweaked the colors and played with different effects. My favorite outcome (other than the one above, which was just brightened a bit) was this black and white version.

I'm really picky about what photo's I choose to turn into black and white...I love black and white photo's, but only when they are done right.  My "right" might not be the same as yours or anyone else's, but {to me} it all comes down to the composition of the photo - the shapes, tones, and textures. Shadow's (which is one of my favorite things about this picture) and highlights are pretty important too.  Anyway, with all that said (and getting off my soapbox now) I think this passes all those "picky" criterias for me and I think it makes a really nice black and white photo. 'Course, I think Tex is beautiful and looks great in any color. :)

Enjoy your Friday and have a wonderfully blessed weekend!