Zoo Pics and Photoshop

We took the kids to the St. Louis zoo last weekend. I don't especially like going to the zoo but I do like taking pictures and every once in awhile I get a good one. They have a butterfly house and I usually get a few good ones in there. But with butterflies, is it possible to get a bad one?!!



I did get a very, very lucky shot of Junie watching a hippo. Now the original picture I took had a great composition, but the water was really dirty:



I spent a few hours in Photoshop and managed remove most of the fish poop and reflections on the glass. I also worked on the color a little:



But then I used a plug-in called Photo Tools 2.5 and used a black and white filter... and I think I like this as a black and white even more.. right?



It's pretty neat and Photo Tools makes it easy. I actually got it free when I bought Photoshop and haven't done a whole lot with it, but there are at least a hundred different filters. Some of the effects like rain or snow take several steps in PS, but just one click in Photo Tools. You can also go back into PS and adjust the opacity because it's on it's own layer. It's certainly not perfect but I have had fun browsing through:)

~Am

P.S. Don't forget to enter my giveaway!!