South Fork, Yuba River

 I had some work in San Francisco last week so I extended my trip a few days and spent some time in Grass valley, CA. I used to live there and it is still one of my favorite places to spend time. My favorite feature of the area is the Yuba river. There are three forks and hundreds of amazing locations for photography.
 Ed Rotberg and Kial James and I hooked up one morning to hike around and take some photos. I had bought the Canon 7D a month before and still hadn't used it. I wanted to use it for the first time making some images that were meaningful to me. When I bought it I was in the middle of a lot of corporate work, which I appreciate, but it wasn't the type of work that excites me. Well I finally got my opportunity!
 This is the first image taken with the new camera, literally image #0001. I shot it in color and then made a black and white version. I then layered the two together in Photoshop CS5,with the BW image on top. I created a layer mask and brushed in some of the color layer beneath. I liked all three versions a lot- color, BW, and a combination of both- but this version strikes me the most. Not a bad trial run! BTW this blows up amazingly well. I haven't given the 7D a full blown test yet but so far it's lovely! What's better than hiking in a place you love with good friends and taking some nice photos? Not a whole lot...