Florida Gothic

The creek behind my mother's house in Warm Mineral Springs, Florida, has always fascinated me with its black water and trees hung with Spanish moss.  It is fed by the actual Warm Mineral Spring, which maintains a steady 86-degree F.  During the winter, warmth-seeking Manatees work their way up this far and loll around, letting fish pick things off of them.

This shot was taken around 5:30 p.m. on July 6,  from the next property downstream (Canon EF-S60mm f/2.8 Macro USM at f/4.0).  In the center of the picture, you can see a part of her lawn that juts out in a slight bend.  The reflections in the black water also add an interesting photogenic touch.

I thought that this picture would be an interesting test of a PhotoShop plug-in suite called Silver Efex Pro, which lets you create some nice Black & White photography effects.  Here's the same shot as above, rendered with a faux infrared effect:

There are of course, a variety of old sepia effects.  I liked this antique sepia effect with vignetting:

Beyond the dozens of presets, you can also add your own tweaks to the settings. The two shots above are with just the default presets. I could play around with these effects for quite a while.