Morning Abstract

The January theme for our photo club is ABSTRACT- which I always love doing. I was uninspired until I walked into my bedroom and noticed the shape of the plant ledge against the sloping ceiling. I did several multiple exposures which I layered to create what this piece. I’m not sure if this is the one I’ll use, but I had fun creating it.

Playing with Fingerpaint

I like to play with my camera- especially when I am a passenger in a car on a road trip. Besides taking standard photos through the window, I sometimes like to try to get some intentional camera movement shots, letting the car provide most of the movement.

The image below is of wild flowers with a forest background taken from the car when we were in Alaska. I kept coming back to the original shot because I liked the colors, and today I decided to play with it. I worked with it using TK actions to separate the tones a bit, added a gradient map with similar colors to the original and a gradient fill. It still needed something, so I took it into Topaz Impression with the thought of using a Monet filter. But I ended up liking what happened when I applied a fingerpaint filter- yes, I have spent my life working with young children! I experimented with blend modes and ended up with this:

I don’t think I’ll be framing this- but it was so much fun to work on.

Here is the original:

Palm Tree Play

I have always loved how palm trees line Benicia’s First Street and especially love how they look at night lit up with twinkly white lights. After photographing sunset there a couple weeks ago, I took a moment to take some photos looking up at the palm fronds.

The below image started as an in-camera multiple exposure- and then I went a little crazy . . .

Winter’s End

Just a couple more winter images before it’s springtime!

This one is another intentional camera movement shot from Eklutna Lake in Alaska- with a bit of Photoshop magic:

The image below is a composite of a few iPhone shots from icy Alaska- and snowy Prescott- edited with iPhone apps:

Alternative Landscapes

Editing photos for creative expression, relaxation, and just plain fun is an essential part of my photography life.  I don’t paint or do crafts- so I create with the camera and the computer. I respect and enjoy traditional photography, but I sometimes like to tiptoe a bit onto the photography wild side.

Yesterday I revisited some of last summer’s photos from Alaska. At the time, I was fascinated with the stark shapes of the rocks and peaks jutting out of the sea, but I was disappointed in many of the resulting shots when edited traditionally. But I had so much fun creating the “alternative landscapes” below.

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Red Cliff Echoes

arc20141020-dsc_5986_melinda_anderson-edit-editI woke up way too early this morning and got up to have a play with some images from our Utah trip back in 2014. Last weekend I had been re-editing some Moab shots for class and to possibly use in an upcoming show- so these red cliffs have been in my subconscious waiting to be turned into some photo art just for fun. I have been playing recently with some phone apps (Fragment and Tiny Planets), which take chunks of your photos and re-arrange them, and wanted to see if I could do something similar in Photoshop in a more controlled way. Fun!