My husband found this beautiful leaf in our driveway and brought it to me, knowing I would want to photograph it. I’m still experimenting with the newer version of Photoshop that I got through my Creative Cloud subscription, so I had a lot of fun adding an artistic filter and several of Kim’s textures, including two magic versions of 1301 I “created”, KK2, and partings.
Here’s a macro shot of curly tendrils on a leaf from our front yard. I took this photo in response to the topic, BENDY, from my daily challenge group on Flickr.
Roadrunners are welcome visitors to our yard; there were actually two running around the day I shot this photo. There was harsh, contrasty lighting that day, so I had to bring out the shadows and lower the highlights to get a usable shot. This version was also textured with grunged by Kim Klassen, and a black and white adjustment layer at soft light blend mode was also used on the feathers.
Why did I do so much editing on this simple image? Because I finally got PHOTOSHOP CREATIVE CLOUD!!!!! I was unable to get the low monthly deal before, because I had the educator’s version of Photoshop, making me ineligible. I would have had to purchase the entire Creative Suite and pay $30.00 a month- NO WAY! But there is a Black Friday deal going on right now which lifts the restrictions on the 9.99 photographers’ package of Lightroom and Photoshop until December 2. I am finally happy with Adobe again. So, if you didn’t know about this deal- now you do!
It’s so much fun to get back into Kim Klassen’s Beyond Beyond lessons- I seem to need a boost now and then to stimulate my creativity. Today’s lessons were how to create “magic” textures using textures that have already been created. Kim gave us a sample image to play with and then challenged us to make our own magic textures (using one of hers as a base) to add to her image.
Before bringing the image into Photoshop, I cropped it to a square (not sure I like cutting off the cup handle, but I wanted it to look different from hers) and used her preset, dark days. In Photoshop I used two textures which I had converted to magic textures- dollard and sybil (2 layers). And I added text (with a layer of dollard clipped to it).
Then I broke all the rules!
The magic texture effect works best with airy images that have a lot of white in them. But I tried it on a shot I took this morning of the view from our driveway of clouds and approaching rain (it actually started to rain while I was taking the photo). I like how the magic textures (1301 and dollard) gave a kind of canvas-ish effect. I reduced opacity on both and masked off some of the white strokes that appeared in the image.
I took some time to catch up on some of my Flickr challenges- and I was in a monochrome kind of mood.
This one is for the theme, one.
And this one is for empty.
The Desert Botanical Garden also has a butterfly garden; at this time, it was all monarchs, which were great fun to photograph.
The last one was textured with a sample from Kim Klassen’s Waterfront collection for Texture Tuesday.
Since I took over 500 shots last week at the Chihuly exhibit, I think I should put a few more on my blog!
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!
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!
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.
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.
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!
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!):
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.
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.
melinda anderson photography 