Color...a little or a lot

Greetings, friends!

I'm joining Donna again this week at a Personal Photo Challenge...
...and she has left it w-i-d-e open!

The theme is COLOR and this was kind of a tough one for me.

After going through my photos, this is what I came up with...

...and it's about as original as it gets for me. 

For the most part, my photos are quite colorful but so are everyone else's, right?
So it got me to thinking...how much color do I want in my photo?

Actually, there are times when I like to remove some of the color to feature a specific part.

For this edit, I used the Focal  B&W effect in Picasa 3.

I also use Picmonkey quite a bit but I personally think Picasa 3 is much more user-friendly.

You start out with your fully colored photo, add the above effect,

 and adjust the area where you want to keep the color.

I really love the look of this...it puts all of the focus on the flower alone.

Sometimes, all that's needed is a soft pastel...
... like these lovely little baby blue flowers that have nearly overtaken my yard this spring.
I'm not complaining though...when you live in the woods, grass doesn't grow well...
...but I'm glad other things do!
The sun was also filtering through the tree, creating the variations of green.
The only editing was softening it up a bit using the Soft Focus effect in Picasa 3.

I'm breaking the rules here to show you the close-up.
And yes, I was lying on my belly on the ground.

But then there are those other times...

...when you want bold, vivid and bright color...
...like when it's STRAWBERRY SEASON...
...like NOW!!!

No editing needed here!

Have a bright and COLORFUL Mother's Day weekend!