Today we are talking about color. I wrote a blog post over on my main site about this whole idea of color. Head on over there to read it but, of course, we’ll talk about it here. It’s about the basics of color, a bit of how the eye works and I try to put that into perspective with how it relates to photography. Link to blog post: https://brentbergherm.com/what-is-color/ Listener submitted images.  We also have some listener submitted images that we’ll also talk about. Today I chose images from Gary Aidekman, Chris Bartell and Benjamin Stuben Farrar.  Gary’s Image is of a red truck with a bunch of various growth around it, be it grasses, bushes, trees and the like. It’s an older pickup truck with a wooden box on the back. The beauty of this image is in the contrasts we find here. The truck is decaying, a bit of rust is seen around the edges of the truck body panels, some dents are visible. The glass is rather clean so it’s not too old and decrepit. The box is showing some age and across the top we see some damage from hauling various objects. However, the contrasts I’m talking about are both the contrasts of color, but also the contrasts of the new fresh growth and the decaying truck. There’s also a contrast of textures, the truck body panels are quite smooth as compared to the grasses, bushes, trees and the wooden box on the back of the truck.  The cab is painted red. And what does red have to do with this image? Or better yet, how does it influence our interpretation of the image?  Certainly, it pops out from the greenery that surrounds it. In this case, I think it enhances the feeling that this object simply doesn’t belong here. Or, at least it’s not “natural” in a manner of speaking. When I think over the key words that usually get associated with red, either positive or negative, I’m actually coming up a bit dry. I don’t see any of them strongly applying here. It does ad a slight dynamic sense to the image in that the colors do complement each other quite well. It’s almost Christmas like in nature, we just need a little snow! It may suggest danger to some people, but not really. The truck is resting there and it will continue to do so, and has done so for a long time which is evident by the grasses growing around it. I do get a subtle sense of power in this image. But again, it’s subtle. The power of the truck to drive here, park here and be left here by its owner. The potential power to break down the grasses and such in front of it to move on out and get things underway. While it’s decaying, it’s not that far gone. It does look like it still has some life in it, and that could suggest as subtle sense of vitality as well. Compositionally, I would like to see one of two things done to this image. Either zoom in slightly tighter to get rid of a few patches of sky that are showing up, allowing us to more fully concentrate on the truck in its environment, or zoom out a bit and allow us to see more of the environment which surrounds this truck. Zooming in will magnify the power of the truck, zooming out will diminish it. I’d also suggest a vignette to darken the greenery in the foreground. Just slightly. Nothing too drastic so that it still feels natural. Doing so will keep the eye interested in the truck only. There’s lots of detail in those areas and green, as we learned from the previous discussion, is naturally brighter than red, and so by changing the relationship between these two primary colors in the scene we’ll rebalance it to give more attention to the subject. Of course, it all depends on the intent you have for this image. The second image is from Chris Bartell. She has been with me on a workshop last year in Charleston at the Create Photography Retreat. She’s a talented photographer and is definitely showing some good work here as well. This image is of a Japanese Maple at the Japanese Gardens in Portland, OR. These are some beautiful gardens. If you get a chance to shoot there, especially in the fall, I highly re