Since I took over 500 shots last week at the Chihuly exhibit, I think I should put a few more on my blog!
Beyond Beyond, Day 33- An Earthy Still
There haven’t been any Beyond Beyond posts from me in awhile- not just because I am behind (I am), but because Kim Klassen’s husband has been seriously ill for awhile. Thankfully, he is on the upswing now, and Kim has been able to resume her Beyond Beyond challenges and tutorials (as well as put out a new set of textures- The Waterfront Collection!). She gave us a sample texture from her collection to use in our images, as well as a preset, which is dark and earthy and desaturated.
I chose to photograph my mini-pumpkins which I have continued to display after Halloween (along with some gourds). It’s fall! I followed Kim’s instructions exactly (for once!), because I really like the tones and the desaturated effect. Both images use her preset, but only the first has the texture. Unfortunately my photo is so dark that the texture is hard to see. I did use her sharpening technique in the first one also- and you can REALLY see that!
Chihuly!
My husband and I toured the Chihuly exhibit yesterday at the Desert Botanical Gardens in Phoenix. I knew sort of what to expect, having seen photos of Chihuly glass in other places, but I was still bowled over as we rounded the path to enter the gardens and came upon this sight before we had even entered the gate:
These tall “Desert Towers”, set among the plants, were sparkling in the sunlight. EXTREME sparking! The word that went through my head was MAGICAL (a funny word in our family- long story- sorry, Nevin!). But it indeed seemed magical; I felt like we were entering the Emerald City! Other magnificent glass creations were placed throughout the huge gardens, and we had a great time walking through and encountering each one.
We had never been to the gardens before, so we were also fascinated by the varieties of cacti- and the butterfly garden! I took a zillion photos- three times more than I will use, because I used exposure bracketing, knowing that the harsh, contrasty afternoon light could make for some difficult lighting situations.
Expect more photos to follow. As I said, I took zillions!
Lake shots- in black and white
I love black and white photography. Many, many of my favorite photos end up being converted to black and white- and saved along with the color versions. I don’t think these photos necessarily screamed black and white when I first saw them, but I much prefer them in black and white now.
Autumn at the Lake
I textured (for Kim Klassen’s Texture Tuesday) one of my photos from our walk at Willow Lake a week ago, using two from her Downton collection- anne and sybil, at low opacities.
Happy Veterans’ Day!
Today we got to experience a Prescott (Everybody’s Hometown) Veterans’ Day parade. It included veterans from every war back to WWII, more vintage cars than I’ve ever seen before, more Marines than I’ve ever seen before (my husband was one of them), a jet flyover, many, many patriotic organizations, a couple beauty queens on horseback, and Senator John McCain.
I enjoyed this little group who presented the colors at the beginning of the parade.
I didn’t notice these ladies IN the parade, but they were watching it from near the reviewing stand.
This was probably the most enthusiastic Marine in the crowd- he waved that flag constantly (to many cheers and “oohrahs”).
A real slice of Americana!
Half
One of the recent topics in my daily challenge Flickr group is half. I dreamed an idea for it, using some of the ideas from my Photoshop Artistry class and worked on it for a bit this afternoon. The techniques weren’t hard, but the end result wasn’t the masterpiece I created in my dream! I ended up turning off all my grunge layers- textures, brushes etc.- and instead am posting a very simplified version of what I had planned.
Update: Here’s another version (which accidentally erased my version above- so it no longer exists on my computer!):
Willow Lake at Sunset
Our local newspaper had an article yesterday about the water fowl and raptors that can be viewed at Willow Lake, just a few miles from our house. We have been talking about going there, so the article gave us the nudge to get in the car and head on over. Since we had only driven by before, we had no idea where to park or what trail to walk, so we weren’t very prepared. We parked in one area and asked a cyclist, who suggested we park closer to the lake. Since the sun was low in the sky, we took her advice and ended up parking near the water. The lake is full of ducks and other water fowl- all very skittish around my camera. We didn’t see any shore birds or raptors, but enjoyed the views during the golden hour and at sunset.
Linking up with Friday Finds at Kim Klassen’s site.
Is Your Mama a Llama?
No, I haven’t gone crazy since moving to Arizona- at least I hope not. I am continuing to practice my Photoshop skills and going WAY outside my comfort zone by doing photo compositing (that IS a word!) with THREE photos and two textures to create this image, which is a sort of visual summary of the highlights of our day in Sedona last week.
BTW, Is Your Mama a Llama? is a book that I used to read to my first graders.
The Visitor
As I sat drinking coffee and checking e-mail yesterday morning at the kitchen bar, I saw something move in the corner of my eye. I looked up to see THIS:
He had jumped up onto the little wall in our back yard and was looking at the view into our neighbor’s yard. Fortunately, I had my camera right beside me, so I quickly snapped these photos before he, just as quickly, jumped down and out of view. We have open space behind us and across the street, so coyotes and javelinas are frequent visitors, I hear. Next time maybe it will be a javelina- or rather, a herd of javelinas!
Key
I spent part of today working on some lessons in the Photoshop Artistry class I’ve just started. I decided to combine a topic in my Flickr daily challenge group (lock and key) with Texture Tuesday and some of the skills I’m trying to learn (and re-learn) in Photoshop. The fun part was trying different adjustments and filters and taking snapshots in the History Panel- a technique I tried a long, long time ago and had never really added to my workflow. Snapshots! I had totally forgotten about using them, and they are a quite useful tool when trying to do something artsy. This photo has a painted effect AND a texture. I added text- and ended up having more trouble with that than anything else- go figure.
texture= Kim Klassen’s granny’s cupboard
Sedona- with clouds!
My friend, Carol and I had a wonderful time photographing beautiful Sedona yesterday. Carol, Lonnie, and I arrived in Sedona in late morning and used the midday (horrible light) hours shopping and eating lunch. By 3 p.m., clouds had started to move in, and by 4pm the sun was lower in the sky, making the light so much better for photography. We started out on the paths to Bell Rock and the Courthouse, and ended up at the Chapel of the Holy Cross. I never get tired of these red rocks!
Chapel of the Holy Cross and surrounding rocks:
The Courthouse and Bell Rock:
CM Monthly Blog Circle- Spookiness!
The theme for our Clickin Mom’s Monthly Blog Circle is spookiness. I had so much fun with this one! Last week, I took some photos in a beautiful area of town that goes all out for Halloween. Well, actually I did this TWICE, because the first time I had no SD card in my camera- DOH! I edited the images to emphasize their scariness, and even added some ghosts to one (can you tell?).
Now that you have looked at my photos, head on over to Jennifer Bantle’s site and then follow the links to complete the circle. Have fun!!!
My Roommate- and Bonus Sunflowers
Here’s a shot of Carol (former roommate from college and beyond) on the way to Jerome the other day. It was incredibly underexposed, because I accidentally left the exposure compensation set to -2.7 (I can’t believe I still make beginner errors like that!), so I had to do a little rescuing in Lightroom. And by the way, NOTHING is straight in this photo- it was a sloping wall, uneven terrain, hills of different levels- yikes!
As we watched TV the other night, I put took one of my sunflower photos into Topaz Simplify to give it a bit of a painted look for fun.
Fill’er up!
We took Carol to visit the town of Jerome- one of my favorite Arizona “must- sees”. While there we got a call from Susan, our college roommate, and we ended up having a great lunch with her and her husband, Chris at Grapes, a local eatery. Although Carol and I took photos, the emphasis was on visiting and reminiscing about our college days. Along the street, I snapped this photo of an old gas pump, which I edited in Perfect Effects 4 with a pseudo HDR filter.
