We were on a mission today: find some fall color before it disappears!
We ended up driving almost all the way to Tahoe today until we finally found fall foliage. None of my photos do justice to the gorgeous golden yellows contrasting with the dark evergreens, but I liked the way the late afternoon sun was hitting this beautiful aspen.
Happy Fence Friday!
Today’s photoshoot was at the Clock Tower, one of the oldest buildings in Benicia (1859). I took bracketed photos for HDR, but couldn’t seem to commit to it in processing. I vacillated- standard processing, black and white, HDR, texturing- so many choices! I tried everything but texture and ended up going with black and white. I think it looks a bit spooky, which is appropriate for the season.
And, BTW, I did NOT take this photo at 4:o8- it was 9:47!
f/11, 1/80, ISO 400, 18mm
My friend and fellow photoblogger, Carol came to spend the day with me. After a day of laughter and talk, Carol, my husband, and I went out for dinner and some sunset photography. My instant fave is this image of Carol photographing the Carquinez Bridge.
I’m suffering from leaf envy right now looking at the beautiful fall foliage photos (there’s some alliteration for you. . .) on Flickr (more alliteration!- I’ve been teaching phonics to first graders today). There are some colorful trees in our town, but nothing compared to the photos I’m seeing online.
I found some leaves at my school today (where I volunteer, now that I have retired) and use one as the subject of today’s photo. It’s Texture Tuesday with a RED theme, so I added a layer of Kim Klassen’s grunged texture. Check out Kim’s Cafe for some gorgeous texture work.
I loved the way the light shown through the orange leaves along my walk today. This is an HDR image, with some of the effect masked in CS5.
As we walked through the Orinda Farmer’s Market today in search of berries and heirloom tomatoes, this display of African market baskets caught my eye. I have a beautiful one at home from Senegal, but I think these were from Kenya.
I spotted this white picket fence on the way home from my physical therapy appointment (carpal tunnel, not- hopefully- photography related), pulled over and got this shot. This is actually more than one shot, because of the deep shade. I had to blend two photographs in Photoshop in order to get enough detail in both foreground and background.
So, Happy Fence Friday!
The weather was hot, the company was great, the food was fantastic (the best 6.95 salad I’ve ever eaten), the grandbaby (not mine) was adorable- and the photos? Wellll, not so wonderful.
Each outside table at the Petaluma restaurant where we ate was decorated with a beautiful red kalanchoe in a cute pot- so I focused on that for my photo of the day. When I was editing tonight, I just couldn’t get the colors to look right- the red flowers with the green leaves looked like Christmas to me. The more I looked at the photos, the more I disliked them. I tried a sepia processing with and without texture- too bland. I ended up with a simple black and white conversion- and called it DONE!
But wait- the day wasn’t over! After coming back to it a couple hours later, I still didn’t like it- especially the composition and the lack of contrast in the flower petals. I went back to the color version, changed the crop, and did an HDR cheat on it (only 1 photo with 3 exposures), which helped some.
So. . . it’s 11:00 now and I have wasted entirely too much time on a photo that I don’t really like. There is something to be said for getting a good shot SOOC, Carol!
This display of gourds outside Trader Joe’s today reminded me that Fall is here- Happy First Day of Fall, everyone!
Out all day- and thank goodness there were roses!
One of my photography goals has been to take more landscape photos- to step back and see the whole scene not just the details. Cows on the hillsides are a frequent sight here in the SF Bay Area- yes, we do have cows! So today, while on an afternoon drive, I took this shot of a cow silhouetted against the sky. I even incorporated some negative space (another goal), but I did crop slightly.
I ran Pioneer Woman’s Old West action to adjust the color, and then added Kim Klassen’s antique texture.
I managed to squeeze in a few photos before meeting my Rapunzel friends in Sonoma for lunch today. I had noticed this gated walkway on a previous visit back in April, but was with family and didn’t want to make them wait for me while I composed my shot and adjusted settings (I was a lot more self-conscious about those things back then. . .). So today I had my chance!
f/5.6, 1/50, ISO 500, 18mm
I volunteered at my old school again today, working with students on letter formation- a traditional beginning of first grade emphasis. It is soooo much fun working with small groups or individual students and not having the responsibility of the whole class! I love it!
As I was finishing up, I remembered that one of the challenges in ODC (the Flickr group I recently joined) was “arrow”- a subject I had no interest in photographing. But there they were on the worksheet right in front of me- arrows! I whipped out my camera and took TWO photographs- and TWO photographs only! This is a record for my 365 Project- I have never taken so few in one day. Maybe soon it can be ONE! 🙂
It is Texture Tuesday- and the task was to use at least one layer of Kim’s new crackerjack texture. I used two- one with multiply blend mode and one with soft light. I also used a golden fill layer to warm things up a bit. Follow the link to Kim Klassen’s Cafe to see some beautiful photographs using this texture.
f/2.5, 1/125, ISO 200, 35mm
A nice relaxing Saturday morning- coffee with friends and then a walk downtown- perfect!
There are always lots of photo opportunities in our little town, especially down by the water. This abandoned, disintegrating boat caught my eye, and I like it best with a black and white processing.
f/10, 1/500, ISO 200, 200mm
