Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 31mm — ¹/8 sec, f/2.8, ISO 500 — full exif
Standard: 1024×768  ·  1440×1080  ·  1600×1200     Widescreen:  1280×800  ·  1680×1050  ·  1920×1200  ·  2560×1600
Buncha' Stones

Unlike yesterday when I photographed the voluptuous cherry blossoms of my previous post, today was misty/spritzy all day. One nice thing about such days is that the bed of stones filling some of the alcoves in my building glisten sumptuously, and I enjoy them for brief moments as I walk by.

On one such day, I paused to take a picture of them, and I thought some might enjoy such an image as a desktop background, and hence this post. Links below the image above lead to sizes appropriate for common desktops, both standard and widescreen.

Personally, I like a background with less contrast (despite the fact that at the moment, I'm using this colorful image on my own desktop), so I futzed around with some Photoshop filters and came up with something even more subdued and calming. It has its own desktop-size links as well:

Standard: 1024×768  ·  1440×1080  ·  1600×1200     Widescreen:  1280×800  ·  1680×1050  ·  1920×1200  ·  2560×1600
Buncha' Stylized Stones

One problem with creating the various sizes above is that in resizing the image, some of the filter effects are reduced or lost, so here's a set at full resolution, with the various sizes being full-resolution crops. Thus, the filter effects remain unperturbed....

Standard: 1024×768  ·  1440×1080  ·  1600×1200     Widescreen:  1280×800  ·  1680×1050  ·  1920×1200  ·  2560×1600
Buncha' Unresized Stylized Stones

I realize that these are not the most exciting photos, but sometimes “calm” is nice for a desktop background. There are plenty of other kinds in my desktop-backgrounds category.