Next month I will be traveling to a different state and will have my camera gear with me.  I hope to capture some future challenge material during that trip.  I will leave the destination a secret for now...   

I'm going to do this via two separate windows open on both monitors so I can look at each contestant's entries while commenting...

Peter, I love the very vivid colors that you attained.  It really made the clouds "pop"!  The green water plants also became much more pronounced.

Jerry, You also brought out more blue in the sky and more green of the water plants though not as much at Peter's entry.  In your alternate entry, I do not see much difference in the overhead branches.  I do like the crop on this version in that it brings the horizon below the middle of the photo like Peter's entry.

Nicole, While I'm not a heavy fan of B&W (having shot nothing but B&W (Tri-X) during my learning years), I do like your first entry.  A significant amount of the overhanging branches were decreased to make them less pronounced.  The clouds took on darker bases almost as though a storm or shower might be just starting to brew.  One thing I noticed is that the clouds that did darken were mostly over the portion of the lake that was slightly rippled and thus reflected on the lake.   Your second entry I believe was a "let's play with this new plugin to see how it works" using the lake photo as a test.  There appears to be some artifacts (white spots) both in the sky and in the lake which do not match up.  The three spots on the left side in the lake seem out of place. 

I have to say, the three of you did some VERY good editing!!  I did notice that none of the entries attempted to remove the two channel marking pilings near the right on the image.  I was wondering if they would even be noticed.  While Peter and Jerry's entries both deepened the sky's blueness, the cloud bases were not correspondingly darkened.  Nicole's B&W rendition did darken the cloud bases with the darker appearing sky.  Less light from above penetrating thru the clouds and less light reflecting off the water would make the cloud bases darker.  Therefore, I declare Nicole's B&W image the winner of this week's challenge.

As for what I did with the image, I'm one for minimalist PP, preferring to display a photo of a given scene as captured for my own use.  This image is my wallpaper image on my home and work desktop systems and my laptop for the reasons Nicole mentioned...it is very serene and lovely.  When work or life gets stressful, I just have to look at my wallpaper and visit the lake... 

I would be very interested in hearing everyone's comments about the original image?   This was the first photo that I took with my Nikon 18-70mm lens on my Nikon D7000. 

A very quick to make and inexpensive "bean bag" for camera stabilizing can be made by buying one or more bags of dried pinto (or navy, etc.) beans and pouring them into a sturdy Zip-Lock bag which is then sealed and placed into a 2nd Zip-Lock bag (to prevent holes from rough surfaces).  Toss it into your gear and you have a suitable support.  Or just toss in a bath towel which can be rolled or folded up as needed. 

Camera bag or camera backpack?  And I have several of both...busted!

Tripod wise, I recently purchased a Manfrotto MK294C3 carbon fiber leg tripod with a Manfrotto D3RC2 3-way head.  My local Nikon dealer had them on sale for their 60th anniversary.  B&H Photo sells them. 

I picked up a Manfrotto  MK294C3 carbon-fiber tripod with their D3RC2 3-way head for my D7000 and thoroughly like it.  Colonial Photo & Hobby in Orlando, Florida had them on sale as part of their 60th anniversary celebration.  Just over $200.00 which is quite a bit less than B&H Photo.  I find the 3-way head gives me more precise control over movement or lack of movement. 

I will also add that this tripod will not fit a normal tripod case with the three head adjustment handles installed.  Manfrotto makes a case for their tripods with that head which fits very nicely and is very well padded. 

Since I'm late in noticing this thread I'll just go to the end of the line which is where I'd be anyhow given my userID here.,.. 

I took this photo while visiting the Lake Toho lakeside park in Kissimmee, Florida.  I was using my Nikon D7000 with a 18-70mm lens. 

Isn't the removal of the low-pass filter one of the main things done during a conversion to enable IR photography with a DSLR?   If it is, the fact that camera bodies can be purchased without one would save having to get the modification performed. 

As of today I have stepped up from a D3100 to a D7000.  I fellow photographer recommended the D7000 over a D5300 which I was going to upgrade to.  I'm very happy that I took her advice and got the D7000!!  Yes the D7000 has less MP but it does have an internal focus motor and two SD card slots (primary and backup) among other features. 

You could always look into going with a 500mm f8 mirror lens though most of the ones available are strictly manual focus.  Putting a 2x behind the lens would give you 1000mm though you would definitely want to be tripod mounted to keep your breathing from shaking the camera.

I'd like to thank everyone for their comments.  This was one of my first photo outings with my new D3100 and I wanted to see what it could do.  In the case of this particular photo, I let the camera decide what to focus on and went with it.  I did seek to take this photo as taken to capture the approaching storm with the sun still poking through the clouds and reflecting off the water and lighting the grass and strolling path alongside the lake. 

To those that do not care for the safety chain and its support posts, what may not be readily visible is that there is about a 3-1/2 to 5 foot drop from the concrete walkway to the surface of the lake which is several feet deep along the shore.  The gators that regularly prowl this area of the lake would make short order of anyone or anything that fell into the lake.  That safety chain with its support posts is there for a reason, to photograph the scene without them is to alter reality from what it really is to something imaginary. 

To those that felt there needed to be a "central focus point" to draw attention in the photo, I don't remember there being a central focus point on most of the landscape photos or paintings in most of the museums I've been to.  No I am not good enough to have my work in a museum....yet.  I'm just reminding them that photos do not always need to have a central focus point or object. 

Sportz Guy, don't worry, I'm not going to stop taking photos or posting them here for critique.  I learned after about my 3rd roll of Tri-X film that you can't please all of the people all of the time and sometimes you might please some of the people! 

So the support posts and safety chain would have to be removed during PP.  Possible though tricky given there are shadows from them that would also need to be removed.  Or is this a "nice to look at but don't share with anyone else" type of photo?  Too much effort to salvage?

I guess you've never gone to a lake or the ocean and just sat there maybe watching some ducks swimming by, watching the sun sparkling on the water and just kind of vegged out letting your cares, stress, etc. kind of melt away while recharging your spirit. 

I've purchased a couple books that when I received them and opened the book reeked of cigarette smoke.  I've since learned that when looking at anything that might capture and hold smoke odor I specifically ask the seller if the item was ever in an environment with anyone that smoked.  That helps me get an idea if I wish to bid on the item or not and if I receive the item and it smells of smoke after the seller told me it had never been around anyone that smoked, I can easily return it for misrepresentation.  Usually any questions that are sent to the seller get posted in the auction along with their answer which warns other potential buyers away.

Actually Tony, I have yet to have the pleasure to visit the UK.  And the person with the smelly camera bag is not displaying the Union Jack beneath name so I could not tell where they were from. 

I purchased a Tamrac Jazz 83 Photo/iPad Backpack today for $59.99 from Colonial Photo and Hobby in Orlando, Florida.  It has plenty of room for my D3100 with a Tamron 70-300 telephoto installed and the 18-55 and 55-200 lenses that came with the D3100.  There is extra room that could hold a 2nd camera body and a flash and either a dust blower or another lens.  I haven't checked to see if my Lenovo Yoga 10 Android tablet will fit into the iPad/tablet slot yet.  What surprised me was that the Jazz 85 (which is larger than the 83) actually has less room for one's camera gear due to a large mesh enclosed compartment above the main camera space.

Try putting several charcoal briquettes inside the bag then closing it up.  Depending on the size of the bag, if you happen to have a bag of charcoal from last year's grilling out, you might put most or all of the charcoal into the bag.  The charcoal absorbs smells, etc.  An option would also be to hang the empty bag outside to air out.  Perhaps with the bag propped open.   

I think possibly a bit looser crop to give more depth from the surrounding property.  Given that this looks almost like a "dust bowl" abandoned farm, perhaps a sepia might work to lend the impression of it being an old photo.  Of the two color shots, I much prefer the 2nd one.  The B&W does work for this though like some have noted already, it is a bit flat. 

Nice shot Gordo.  I would recommend a bit looser crop so that the top of the building does not appear right up against the top of the photo. 

I took this while spending a few hours visiting Lake Toho near Kissimmee, Florida. 

This is one of my early photos taken with my D3100 while visiting Lake Toho in Kissimmee, FL in December. 

Hello from Central Florida!  I am relatively new to using Nikon camera gear having learned using Pentax gear.  I have a Nikon D3100 and a Nikon AW100.  I'm looking forward to becoming active in this community and making friends here.  Michael