One Lighthouse 6 Ways

While in Wisconsin last week (really?  was that really just LAST week?!), we visited the city where both my parents were born and raised.  We picked up Grandma just before lunch, and headed to Sheboygan...home of the most amazing steak sandwiches on earth.

I'm not talking burgers, and I'm not talking a hunk of steak slapped on a roll.  

I'm talking ground steak, grilled to tender perfectness.  Add to that, half a stick of butter, fresh onions, some pickles, and plenty of ketchup and mustard...put all of THAT on a homemade hard roll (crunchy on the outside, but still tender and yummy).  Oh man, WHY didn't I take a picture?

You pick the thing up to take a bite, and you'd better be prepared.  Prepared for your eyes to roll back in your head with awe and pleasure.  Prepared with napkins, because otherwise you'll have butter dripping off your elbow in roughly 1.3 seconds.

I LOVE SHEBOYGAN STEAK SANDWICHES.  Truly - one of my life's greatest pleasures.

(I really did plan to talk about a lighthouse...indulge me, I'm getting there.)

One of the most fun parts of this particular trip, was watching my Grandma.  Grandma has to be about 90 pounds, and was adamant as we pulled up to the restaurant,

"Ach, eat?  I'm not hungry.  Not one bit hungry."

Then she proceeded to devour a steak sandwich that was about at big as her head, and she chased it with half my onion rings.  I smile just thinking about it :-)  

After we were stuffed and content, we hit the road and drove past both my parents' childhood homes (and Grandma's old house).  

After that little jaunt down memory lane, we drove down to the lake.  Sheboygan is RIGHT on Lake Michigan.  

After the lake, we drove to the Village of Kohler, where my Grandpa is buried.  Grandpa worked his whole life making things like sinks and tubs for Kohler (I can't wait until we have the money to replace every fixture we have with good ol' Kohler).  It's a regular thing, visiting his grave.  They plant flowers, brush the dust of the stone, and water and prune the flowers.    

It's a bit melancholy watching Grandma take care of "Daddy"...watching her gaze at the stone that bears his name...the stone that bears her name too, but that is missing a number.  

I took pictures.  I'll share them some other time when Grandma isn't in the hospital fighting for her life. (She took a marked turn for the BETTER - thank you to all of you who prayed.)

Anyway... I also took lots and lots of pictures at the lake.  In particular, I took some shots of the lighthouse as we walked all the way down the pier and laid a hand on that red metal.  

Here's one of my favorite shots straight out of the camera (SOOC):

Not very impressive, is it?  Seeing my SOOC shots sometimes makes me wonder if I'm a good photographer at all, or if I'm just a fairly decent photographer...and a pretty darn good post-processor :-)

I made several copies of this image in Light Room, and then finished them using different techniques.  Which is your favorite?

The standard straighten, brighten, sharpen:

The black and white with a pop of red:

The sepia tone (one of my personal faves):

The saturated:

The saturated and brightened (another of my favorites):

I've also been having tons of fun playing with overlaying textures in PhotoShop.  I'll post on that later...