Finding Color

Winter offers a limited pallet. Lovely in many ways, but limited - white, grey, brown, blue, black. Whenever composing an image, trying to find that shot, get the right framing, I always crave the basics - texture, color, contrast. On the plus side, winter's restrictions force me to really LOOK that much harder so it makes for a good exercise. Or, sometimes I cheat; introduce a pop of human-made color (with the added benefit of taking care of the "contrast" craving as well). This  makes for a good looking exercise in its own right, just via a more round-about path - it provides a focal point, a subject. But because that subject is, in a sense, an artificial thing, the surroundings and background become more real.