We spent a few hours in Benicia on our California trip last week- long enough for me to visit the waterfront and take a few photos.
The photo below is of boats at the Yacht Club, with the refinery towers looming in background. I edited this in Photoshop, using a filter to “posterize” the image and adding one of the free Flypaper textures from Adobe Exchange.
This is your basic Benicia waterfront photo, edited in Lightroom.
Special breakfast treats, presents, phone calls and facetime with kids and grandkids, and a walk at the lake were all part of my husband’s special day yesterday. And evening brought a delicious dinner and cake at Debbie and Dale’s house.
We puzzled over the big white bird we could see in a tree by the lake, but it was too far to see clearly, even with the zoom lens.After, looking at it on the computer (and asking my bird expert friend, Carol), we have decided it is a black-shouldered kite, which isn’t supposed to be in our area.
Textures by Jessica Drossin and Kerstin Frank
When I first started this whole photography thing, I literally couldn’t see the light. I think it took me almost a year before I was able to really see how light differs from moment to moment, from place to place. And now I am obsessed with it.
While we were in California, I took advantage of the beautiful light (and Spring flowers) when taking photos. The theme for this week’s Texture Tuesday is light, and I think this photo demonstrates how light (in this case, backlighting) can enhance a photograph.
Textured with bent edges and florence, by Kim Klassen.
It is Spring- or something like that- in California! We are returning from a whirlwind business trip where we managed to see most of our friends that we didn’t see the last time we were there. We talked, we laughed, we ate, we drank- it was great!
There were blossoms and flowers, and even a bit of rain. I didn’t do a lot of photography, but here are a couple shots from when we stopped at a shopping area to load up on “necessities” we haven’t found in Prescott (think Aveda and Art of Shaving. . .).
Yes, that’s Nordstrom in the above photo- no, we didn’t shop there.
We’re on our way home now. Funny- I refer to both the Bay Area and Prescott as home- as in, “We are going back home to visit our friends,” and “We’ll be driving home tomorrow.” I guess it’s a good thing to feel that way about two places!
A view of the San Francisco Peaks (Flagstaff) from across the street
This is most likely the end of my tulip photos (unless I find another candidate for editing!). Time for new flowers!
The theme for this week’s Texture Tuesday is LOVE, of course. This is textured with Kim’s deco and magicfilm3.
I was photographing my tulips for probably the last time and came up with this whimsical shot, which ended up being perfect for one of the Flickr challenges- Holes! BTW, this is the sprinkling part of my watering can; the tulips are in the background.
Some tulip macros for your enjoyment!
My husband stopped at Trader Joe’s the other day (for beer. . .) and came home with a bouquet of tulips and another of iris! I love the color combination!
I am continuing my obsession with square crops with this flower diptych. I edited both of the photos in this layout in Lightroom, then added one of Kim Klassen’s textures, bamboo, in Photoshop. Then- it was back into Lightroom for an easy diptych layout.
Then, because I LOVE black and white, I duplicated the diptych and did and did a b&w conversion. I like this version even better.
Here are a couple photos from the last week or so that didn’t make the blog. Both have been textured and cropped to squares, which seems to be my favorite crop these days.
The first is from sunset the other night, and the second is from our walk at Lynx Lake.
Textures by Florabella and Kim Klassen.
A new feeder is hanging outside the window of our office! Although I’m hoping to see a variety of birds, I’m enjoying the finches (and an occasional scrub jay) who hang out there.
melinda anderson photography 