Yes, there is water in Arizona! Drive about 5 minutes past Costco, and you are into the Prescott National Forest. Last weekend we took a short walk along Lynx Lake, where we watched an osprey fly around and a heron circle and land. People were fishing, canoeing, and kayaking- and we were content to sit and watch it all. A beautiful way to spend a sunny Saturday.
This is seriously fun! I have played around a bit with textures before using Photoshop brushes and was never satisfied with anything I did. This time it was frustrating at first, but I kept at it- and finally created a few I might actually USE.
I took macro photos around the house of a few textures- rocks, tile, clouds, carpet, window blinds, screen etc. Then I brought them into Lightroom and Photoshop and played with them- for 2 days off and on. I changed colors, blurred them, painted over them, added text, used blend modes etc. etc. The test was to layer them with a photograph and see if they actually did anything wonderful to the photo. As I mentioned in my last post, this is where I ran into trouble. Some of my textures were too light to even show up. But I played some more today and ended up with some decent ones. I want to do this again, but I have so many textures I’ve bought or collected over the years (and they are so much better than mine)- that I wonder if it is something I will actually do. It is fun though.
The textures on top are from a rock and a window blind combined with clouds.
The bottom two textures are both from a tile on my hearth (with different tints).
My husband wants to know what I’m naming my textures. The Downton Abbey collection has been done already by our mentor, Kim Klassen. I have some ideas- I’ll keep you posted!
I’m making a slight attempt to catch up with my Flickr and 2B (Beyond Beyond) challenges today. The 2B challenge I’m working on is creating textures. Kim Klassen makes it look so easy, but my first two attempts have been epic FAILS. The test of a good texture is that it should enhance a photo, right? The two I created were fun to do and looked okay until I added them to photos. Back to the drawing board, er… wacom tablet!
One of my Flickr group’s topics this week is weather. Since I’m a bit obsessed with the weather in my new home in Northern Arizona, I kept that topic in the back of my head. Last night I had just joined my husband on the couch to watch football when he said, “Now there’s some clouds for you to photograph.” (he is always pointing out things for me to photograph). I looked out our east-facing window to see lovely puffy, pink clouds, a reflection of the sunset in the west, behind our house. I saw all this explained on the Weather Channel, but don’t remember how and why it happens that way. I grabbed my camera and went out front to take a few shots. Then I turned around to go back in. Oh. My. God.
I might like this one best- black and white with a bit of matte processing and grain. The screen somehow gave it a textured vignette- there’s no added texture.
Love those coneflowers! This one has no special processing; the background is grass seen through a window and screen.
While I was in Yellowstone, one of my daughter’s friends gave her a small bouquet, which included coneflowers (echinacea). I love photographing coneflowers (never knew they were echinacea!), because of their spiky centers. This photo I textured with Kim Klassen’s ruemarion and simplistic for Texture Tuesday.
Grand Canyon sunrise
Thanks to our friends winning tickets for the train from Williams, we spent two days and a night at the Grand Canyon! This was a first for both my husband and myself- and it did not disappoint! We stayed on the South Rim and, yes, the hotels are really right along the rim. Magnificent!
We took shuttle buses in both directions, stopping off along the way to admire the views and take photos. I kept complaining about the harsh light and lack of clouds the first day, but sunrise and plenty of big puffy clouds made up for it on day two.
We only had two mishaps. The first was on our first stop on the first day- a gust of wind lifted my Tilley hat right off my head and into the canyon. The second was an hour later, when a bug on her hand startled my friend, Debbie while she was taking a photo. She screamed and threw her iPhone over the railing onto a tiny, scary ledge below. A young, hunky European (?) guy crawled through the railing and down onto the ledge below and retrieved it to our amazement. He then walked even further along the ledge and stood with toes at the very edge in a King of the World pose. Yikes!
Here are two of my many photos, the first taken at sunrise by our hotel.
On one of the weekend days at Yellowstone, I accompanied my daughter’s family on two mini-hikes. The Wyoming skies were magnificent- blue with puffy clouds everywhere. I love this rural scene of a horse barn near where we stopped to eat lunch.
I’m back- after spending a week in Yellowstone mostly playing with this sweet boy- and then another five days back in Benicia. Miles was busy at all-day Kindergarten (8:05-3:45!), so 2 1/2 year old Henry was definitely the star of my photos this time. I’m just beginning to edit my photos, but these two jumped out at me. He is just so darn cute!
I’m in Yellowstone without my computer and am busy babysitting this little cutie! I’ve taken lots of photos with my big girl camera, but for now am just posting this iPhone photo of Henry earning an m&m for potty training.
I know summer doesn’t officially end for awhile, but the Labor Day weekend has always seemed like a milestone marking the close of summer. As I walked around the front yard the other evening, I noticed that, as the daylight began to fade, the purple blossoms of the Russian sage were fading as well.
Textured with savor by Kim Klassen for Texture Tuesday.
The changing colors in the skies after dinner last night captured my attention. There were no towering thunderheads- just some wispy white and pink clouds. They made an interesting backdrop for closeups of plants out front .
Russian sage against pinkish clouds.
Our neighbors’ pampas grass.
After a week of unpacking boxes and finding spots for all our possessions (still 25 out of 300 boxes to go), it was so wonderful to have our very first visitors, Rick, Margott (his mom), and dear little Alice. Alice is the three year old daughter of Rick and his wife, Andrea, our god-daughter. Here’s a shot of Alice and Rick in our back yard.
Today I finally took some time to walk around outside with my macro lens attached to my camera. Macro lens- oh how I’ve missed you! I found some flowers and plants I’m not familiar with- maybe someone (Carol, Debbie?) can tell me what they are.
There is a huge spiky plant in a bed out front. It is past the blooming stage (you can see the faded red flowers still ).
I love this one- I think it’s probably an annual.
melinda anderson photography 