Throwback Thursday
Looking back at October in Prescott- wildflowers and cactus in bloom at Willow Lake!
ill
Spotlight
The window light seems to have created a spotlight effect on the table in this hydrangea still life- as well as a bit of a refracted image of the grandfather clock which was behind.
Painterly effects added with Topaz Impression
Hydrangea!
I took some time during the football playoffs last weekend to do some textures and still life photography. This photo was taken right by the TV during the Kansas City/Houston game (I love Patrick Mahomes…) and, although the photo may look peaceful and serene, I was likely cheering and possibly even yelling. Who me?
LAB Color part 2
Below is another image edited with LAB Color. This was a more complicated edit involving the same steps as before with the addition of an equalize adjustment. Then the image was taken into Topaz Studio where some painterly adjustments were added to part of the image (mostly the petals). Definitely a fun project!
LAB Color
A week ago at our camera club we watched a Harold Davis video on flower photography, and editing with LAB color in Photoshop was mentioned. I had watched many of his videos several years ago and had been inspired to buy a lightbox, which I use often when I shoot flowers. But I had not played with LAB color since that time. So I was inspired to try this editing technique once more with photos I had already taken. Basically, I used color channels to invert colors and blend modes to apply to the regular image. This is definitely not my usual style, but it was fun to do.
Faded and Withered Beauty
I love echinacea!. I keep the flowers in a jar long after their petals are faded and withered- they still hold their appeal for me. Maybe because I’m a little faded and wilted myself! There is a beauty in aging. . . right?
Petunias
One of the pleasures of visiting our Alaska family is seeing their amazing garden! There is a greenhouse full of seedlings, and next to it is a huge terraced vegetable garden. A deck surrounds the house, and the railings are decorated with flower boxes. In front there are more flower beds as well as rhubarb, strawberries and raspberries. And TREES of course!
This photo shows some of the petunias growing in a flower box on a front railing.
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Flower Emotion
This week I’m meeting with my little AAUW photo group- and the topic is emotions in photos. We didn’t have a presentation on this, so I felt like I was flying blind with this theme. I chose a photograph of one of my grandsons looking APPREHENSIVE as he got on the school bus to kindergarten, another of a group of children looking GLEEful as they frolicked on the beach- and then three flower photos (one HAPPY cosmos and two echinacea). I had bought the echinacea at last weekend’s farmer’s market and decided yesterday to photograph them in their current state of WILT.
Here is DEJECTED:
And here is FRAZZLED:
Blue Spring 2
This image is the second of two multiple exposures I took of the same flowers. I dearly love playing with this technique, whether in camera, in Photoshop, or on my iPhone. I’ve always loved impressionist and abstract painting and so enjoy creating images that are not a literal representation of the scene in front of me. I never know exactly how they will turn out, and I think it’s the unpredictability that is a big part of the appeal for me.
