Beyond Beyond 4

The task this week was to bring something outside- from inside.  I was already planning to do something with Hershey’s Hugs (kisses were sold out. . .)- so I dragged them outside and created this layout.  Happy Valentines Day!

valentine layout

I did learn something new from this week’s lesson (talk amongst yourselves if you don’t use Photoshop. . .)- the best way for ME to add a texture to a photo is using MiniBridge.  Since I started using Aperture (and later Lightroom) before I started using Photoshop, I never found a need to open photos using Bridge or MiniBridge.  Now I see that, when I add a texture to a photo, it is much easier to keep MiniBridge open and drag a texture onto the photo, rather than clicking Open and using the finder window.  So- as my grandson, Henry would say- Happy, Happy, Happy !

Melinda9 Comments

Downtown Lighthouse

Last Saturday I was itching to get out and shoot some photos.  It had been a fairly stressful week, as weeks go, and, I felt a drive and some new scenery would be good for both of us. I thought of the little town of Suisun, which, although it is nearby, we hardly ever visit.  I looked online and noticed there was a lighthouse.  Lighthouse? In downtown Suisun? We drove over and and discovered the Suisun Harbor Lighthouse. Built in 2006, it is just 52 feet high- and does not guide ships.  It instead is a beacon leading people to the harbor area of the newly revitalized downtown.

I was drawn to the stripes.  This shot, converted to black and white, is my favorite.

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Melinda2 Comments

LOVE

After 41 years- it must be love!

Today’s theme for Texture Tuesday is love.  I conceived this photo originally in response to a Clickin Moms’ creativity challenge, Body Language, and thought it would be perfect for Love as well.  And I got another excuse to wear my favorite valentine socks from my teaching days! 🙂

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I played with this one a bit, converting it to black and white-and then adding a layer of Mary, one of Kim Klassen’s textures from her new Downton collection.  Since Downton Abbey is my most favorite TV show, I love having these new textures named after the the Crawley women.  I wanted to use Sybil, but the tones of Lady Mary’s texture worked better with the image I had in mind.  Next time, Sybil!

To see some beautiful textured images centered around a LOVE theme- head on over to Kim Klassen’s site.

Melinda10 Comments

Bubble Macros

Take one glass of water, add some drops of olive oil, set the glass on something colorful, set up your macro lens on a tripod- and VOILA!  Instant fun!

To my teacher friends who are still working: yes, retirement is A W E S O M E !

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Black and white versions are fun too.

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Melinda5 Comments

Beyond Beyond 3

 

 

 

For this week’s Beyond Beyond assignment, we were challenged to take a series of photos with a shallow depth of field, focusing on different parts of the scene.  We were then to choose our favorites to post.  I chose my gerbera daisies, which are fading fast, for this assignment. Invariably, my favorites had the pink flower in front in focus, although I took quite a few focusing on the rear flowers or teapot.  So here are the three I like best.

teapot and flowers layout

I took these three shots using the light from my bedroom window.  If you look closely at the bottom photo, you can see a reflection of me sitting on the bed!

Melinda12 Comments

Macros in Pink

I experimented with my macro lens last weekend- shooting gerbera daisies and water drops.

For the top photo I used a long exposure and small aperture to increase depth of field- and mostly succeeded.

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For the shot below, I used close to the maximum aperture of my macro lens (f/4) and went for a very shallow depth of field.  I further reduced the clarity in Lightroom to accentuate the dreamy look.

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Melinda5 Comments

Color POP!

It’s Texture Tuesday- and the challenge was to create an image with a POP of color.  Not thinking outside the box, I headed to the store to buy some gerbera daisies, my go-to flower subjects and favorite cut flower.  And I used my go-to texture, Kim Klassen’s bent edges, which I desaturated and mostly brushed off the flower itself.

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Melinda11 Comments

Reflected

I found a bunch of these seeds on a walk the other day and thought they would be a subjects for a macro shot. I couldn’t decide which photo to post.  The second one has greater depth of field- but I love the reflection in the first one.  Which image do you like best?

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31Jan2013-6976These photos were both shot at f/16, 1/200, ISO 400 with added bounced flash. My shooting challenge involved getting sufficient light without losing the reflection- and without adding a reflection of the flash on the white surface (my white chair again).  I ended up underexposing- and then opening up the shadows in Lightroom.  If I had used a wider aperture, I would have needed less flash, but would have sacrificed depth of field.  I know I need to learn more about focus stacking for macro shots to avoid this issue- but not today!

Melinda3 Comments

Close-Up Portraiture

In a moment of  bravery, I signed up for a monthly challenge group with Clickin Moms.  The talent, skill, and creativity of the CM photographers inspires, but also intimidates me.  I am stepping waaaaaay outside my comfort zone to participate in this- but that’s how we grow, right?

We have been divided into blog circles of 15 that will be linked up each month for 2013, so if you click on the link in each photographer’s post, you should eventually end up back here!

The theme for this month is close-up portraiture, which I really enjoy- especially with babies.  I was so tempted to post macro shots of Henry when he was a baby, but, since my daughter took most of them (using my camera)- I think that might be cheating! 🙂

So, I called on my friend Barbara’s daughter, the beautiful Victoria! I took photos of her a couple weeks ago and posted some of them here.  Today’s photos are from the same shoot.  I took these photos with my 50mm 1.4 at f/4.5 and f/5 and used bounced flash (speedlight, TTL) to enhance the ambient light.  Both are edited in Lightroom 4 only.

After you look at my photos, head on over to Misty Colvard’s site to see what Misty has done with this month’s challenge!

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She is so darn pretty!

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Melinda15 Comments

Early Morning Fence

The  cows were out when I walked over to the edge of our development at sunrise.  They stared me down while I photographed the barbed wire fence and eventually moved on. I was concentrating on a shallow depth of field- so you might have to take my word for it that these are indeed cows.

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And here is a shot of the same fence- but looking toward the sun.

 

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What a peaceful way to start the day!

Melinda2 Comments

Beyond Beyond 2

My second assignment for Beyond Beyond (aka 2B), was to practice using various apertures and look at the resulting depth of field- and then to have fun using editing techniques in Lightroom and Photoshop.  The suggestion was to use Kim’s image of a white bowl of pinecones on a white chair, giving it a different look in processing.  Well- I have pinecones and a white bowl and a white chair- so I took my own photos.

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I used one layer of Kim’s texture, simplistic, at 65% opacity and desaturated the image slightly to get rid of my yellow walls.  I googled simply to find an appropriate quote and found this one attributed to Mother Teresa.  After editing, I discovered Kim had used the same quote (except for one word) attributed to some one else.  Oh well- you can’t trust the internet!

Melinda10 Comments

Noticing

Using my macro lens with a purposely shallow depth of field, I took a few shots of my asparagus fern the other day.  When I brought them into Lightroom, I noticed bumps on the surface of the tiny leaves.  I thought the leaves were dirty, so went back outside and looked at the plant more carefully- no dirt that I could see.  I reshot the images and took them into Lightroom.  There was still a rough, bumpy texture. I actually reshot the photos the next day as well- same results.  I’m fascinated with what you can see with a macro lens!  I ended up liking this photo best in monochrome.

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Speaking of noticing, the shadows of my shutters in the morning light caught my eye this morning.

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Melinda2 Comments

Still

This week’s Texture Tuesday’s link-up features Kim’s new texture, minus 43, which was the temperature (including wind chill) where she lives in Manitoba when she created it.  I wanted to have some SNOW in today’s image, so I had to go back to a photo I took in November, when we were at Yellowstone.

It was a gray day with flat light- but still beautiful in the stillness of late autumn when the park is closed to traffic.

Peace be still

I used one layer of texture, which I desaturated slightly, and reduced the opacity.

Melinda10 Comments

Book Spine Poetry

Where have I been? I can’t believe I’ve never done this before!

I was looking through the tutorials and challenges from last year’s Beyond Layers class and discovered this activity. You go through your books (or go to the library) and find some book titles that you stack to make a poem.  Teachers- wouldn’t this be fun?  This was a quick five minute attempt- and is kind of a cheat, because the second title is kind of a poem all on its own- but I like it just the same. I want to try it again!

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Textured with reentry by Kim Klassen at low opacity.

Melinda7 Comments