Les Fleurs
Spring is here- so I’m continuing on with flowers today. Here is a lensbaby daisy photo in black and white. I recently updated Lightroom and decided to use one of the new “artistic profiles” for this image. I’m not thrilled with where they have placed these in the adjustment panel (or even that they are IN the panel. . .), but I do like the improved ability to preview changes- and also adding Dehaze to the basic panel (where it belongs!).
A White One
There was only one daffodil in the bunch that was white- a reminder of the daffodils we used to grow when I was a child.
Revisited
Wabi Sabi, Lensbaby blur, an old mason jar, desaturated tones, playing with vintage editing in Lightroom.
Deja Vu.
Pastel
A return to doing what I love- soft and dreamy flowers. For this one I used my Lensbaby Velvet 56, which I have never fully explored. When I joined my photo group, it seemed that there was such an emphasis on sharpness- that I started working on my landscape photography more and more- and I mostly left my lensbabies behind. It has been fun this week to once more embrace my love of BLUR!
Another Alaska Memory
Monkshood- discovered on a walk at the Eagle River Nature Center with the boys (including my nature guide, Justin)
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:
Iconic
One of the iconic Alaska views- mountains and trees with fireweed in the foreground. I couldn’t manage to frame it with the Matanuska Glacier as a background (I might have fallen off a cliff. . .), so I settled on this view. Fireweed is just about everywhere in Alaska at this time of year.
Down the Rabbit Hole
Today I posted an iPhone image on Instagram and commented that I had fallen down the iPhone app rabbit hole and was wondering if I was ever going to return to regular photography. A very talented instagram friend replied, ” There is no “regular photography”, there is just photography and creativity, and there is nothing wrong with going down there and looking for wonderland.” Don’t you love that?
Today I had my photo club friends over to play with paint. We had a blast rolling out colors on the gelli plates and using stencils and all sorts of tools to create textures and backgrounds to photograph and use in our images. It was fun to do art with NO RULES, since rules are traditionally such a big part of photography- although artist/photographers everywhere are breaking them now (yay!).
The above photo (I know- it’s pretty psychedelic. . .) was quickly created after my friends left this afternoon and was edited totally on the iPhone. The texture used was actually the photo below, after it had been through a few apps (Roll World, Brush Stroke, Snapseed- maybe more)- then was combined with the flower in Image Blender and tweaked a little more in Mextures. I still love Photoshop for the control I can get- but with the iPhone or iPad I can be creative while watching TV or when I wake up in the night and can’t back to sleep!
This photo (angel hair lying across paint on a gelli plate) became the texture used in the flower photo:
The Details
I received a beautiful Spring bouquet for Mother’s Day from my beautiful daughter, Caitlin! It wasn’t until I imported the photos into the computer that I realized I never took a photo of the entire arrangement (tulips, hydrangea and daisies)- just the details! I do love my macro lens, but I will try to capture the whole bouquet before it’s too late!
I love the color combinations!
Of course I had to try a multiple exposure to give it a painterly look!
Thank you, Caitlin! ❤
With Intent
Intention has continued to be a hot topic of discussion with my photo group this week. I think shooting flowers with intention is perhaps not what we all had in mind, but, since I was taking photos of gerbera daisies, that was where I practiced. I did not make a list of words as was suggested, but I did have the words nostalgia and vintage in mind when I shot and edited this photo. Looking at it afterward, I realize I should/could have used a vintage container for the flowers- but I was thinking simple too, I guess. As usual, I did stray in my other flower photos (you’ll see another shot tomorrow)- so I’m not sure this is the best method for me.
