Potpourri

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At the end of the year, WordPress sent me a POTPOURRI of information and stats about my blog in 2012.  I thought I’d report the highlights here, because some of my wonderful blog readers figure in the report.  Intrigued?

This blog had a total of 13,000 views in 2012!  That is hard for me to fathom, since it’s not advertised.  I know it is mostly my real-life friends and family, but also those I have become friends with in the online community through Clickin Moms and Kim Klassen and other connections I have made.  Thank you all for viewing my photos!

The busiest day was February 16, with 134 views!  The post that day was Lean On Me, which was the most viewed part of the blog that day.  I am wondering if Nevin or some of the other Rapunzels did some blog viewing that day!

Now here is the puzzling part to me- the most viewed post in 2012 was from Jan. 5, 2011- the fifth day of the FIRST year of my Project 365.  It is puzzling, but not surprising to me, because each week of the year the search term that brings most folks to my blog is SNOWY BRANCHES- and that is the blog title for that day. Week in and week out- people search for snowy branches. Is snowy branches a code word for something? A drug term? A video game? A rock group? A rapper? If you can shed some light on this, please do!

Oh- and the second most frequently used search term that brings people to my blog is- get ready for it!- SNOWY BRANCH! Oh, dear me. . .

The other most frequent search terms make sense to me: melinda365, flower texture, and flower textured background.

Now for the Top Five Commenters!

Not surprisingly, the most frequent commenter is Carol of In Focus Daily!  She is actually in the number 1 and number 5 spots (two internet identities, most likely).  Carol was my roommate in college and for 2 years after that- AND she introduced me to my husband!  We reconnected a few years ago and developed our passion for photography at the same time.  Thanks, Carol! Number two is my friend, Claudia, who has been so faithful about reading and commenting on my blog. Third is Karren, whom I have never met, but feel like I know through her wonderful photographs of her family and beautiful scenery in Utah.  Her blog is Karren’s Photography Journal– go check it out! Fourth is my friend Joan, who has been a close friend since we met as brand new, totally green, first year teachers at Kawana School in Santa Rosa, California in- nevermind the year. . .

So that’s it for the potpourri of blog stats for 2012!

Today’s photo was taken in response to a Flickr challenge (starts with P) and is textured with Kim Klassen’s bent edges, my absolute favorite and go to texture.

Melinda4 Comments

Nandina

I had fun this morning shooting some nandina berries I had brought into the house.  I used both my 35mm 1.8 and my macro lens and took a variety of photos from different angles. Here are a couple that I like so far.

In the photo below I played with a matte look with my black and white conversion (basically eliminating the blackest blacks in the image) and added a Florabella texture

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And here is a macro of some of the berries on my father’s dental cabinet; I always love the reflections on the black surface.

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Melinda2 Comments

Day 363- Photoshopping

I am really in the mood today to PLAY with photos more than TAKE them.  I bundled up and spent about twenty minutes outside today, hoping to get some bird shots- unsuccessful.  I ended up taking bare branch shots (don’t know why I love them so. . .) and an ivy leaf peeking through the fence (for the topic, renewal).

Then I went crazy.

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I’ve been playing with the difference blend mode lately and had a lot of fun using some of Jessica Drossin’s textures along with varying blend modes, including difference as the starting place.  I especially love it for the black trees, as it turns them gold! The predominant texture you are seeing in the blue and pink shades is Lost Rainbow.

Puzzler:  I was very surprised to see the difference (no pun intended) between the photo I edited in Photoshop and what was transferred back to Lightroom. I ended up having to increase vibrance and contrast in both photos to get them to look at all like they did in Photoshop. They still look best in Photoshop. Color space issues???

 

Melinda2 Comments

Day 318- Sunset on the Strait

For the last few years, my husband and I have developed some routines (old people routines, our kids would say).  One of them is Taco Tuesday- actually Taco SALAD Tuesday.  We thought we had invented this until our son informed us that Taco Tuesday is a real thing- at least in San Diego.  Anyway, we almost always have our Tuesday night dinner at Sandovals downtown and often schedule it around watching the sunset down by the water.

Lots of sunflare here- yikes!

 

The last photo is textured with Kim Klassen’s kk_printed texture- at very low opacity.

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Day 311- Tuesday- Textured and Not

I am linking up with Kim Klassen’s Texture Tuesday again- one of my favorite photography/artsy things to do!  The theme today was to choose a favorite photo, textured or not.  A couple days ago I ordered a 16X20 metallic print of one of my photos of the Point Arena lighthouse, which I took on our trip to Mendocino last month.  I would never have ordered anything so huge normally, but the print came as a freebie with Matt Kloskowski’s Lightroom 4 Kelby Training seminar, which I’m attending next month with my photo buddy, Carol.  I did not add a texture for the print- especially because of it being printed on metallic paper and not being sure of how that would do with the texture.  I haven’t had many photos printed and feel a little out of my element making printing decisions.

But for today, I did add a texture, Kim’s dusty rose at 40% and masked off the lighthouse. I really like what the subtle texture does to the photo.  Pay a visit to Kim Klassen’s Cafe to see some beautiful textured photos by other photographers!


I also took some photos for the topic, circles, for my Daily Challenge Flickr group.  I was uninspired, but decided I liked the bokeh circles best.

Melinda3 Comments

Day 304- Macro Mini (and more. . .)

One of my mini pumpkins was the subject for my photo of the day- but this time I used my macro lens.  Because it is Texture Tuesday, I played around with textures (Kim’s golden and kk_grannyscupboard) and ended up using a square crop as well.

My Daily Challenge group on Flickr has window as its topic today.  Interesting windows are among my favorite photography subjects, but I have no real time to go out and shoot one today, so…..

I took this photo when we were in Mendocino a few weeks ago, but I can’t use it for the Flickr group because I took it BEFORE the topic was posted.  I edited it in Lightroom and tried a bit of desaturating and split toning to give it a vintage look- a technique I learned from Kim Klassen (of course) in her Round Trip class.  I tend to have bright, saturated colors and lots of contrast in my photos. In fact, one of my Flickr friends said it was my trademark, so I am experimenting with other editing styles just to step out of my box a little.

Go visit Kim Klassen’s Cafe for links to more textured photos!

Melinda9 Comments

Day 290- Looking Up

I met this noisy gull down by the water this morning. I wasn’t planning on photographing birds unless something unusual flew by (how many Canada geese can I photograph, seriously?), but he was insistent. He flew in circles around me, practically begging to be my subject.  So here he is- in a textured version for Kim Klassen’s Texture Tuesday, with the theme, Looking Up.  I used two layers of Kim’s dusty rose texture, the second at low opacity and mostly brushed off the seagull.

Melinda8 Comments

Day 278- Away

We are away at the coast for a long weekend!  My hard-working husband needs a break, and I need a change of scene.  Blog readers- there will be something different for you to look at beyond the four walls of my house!

We arrived an hour ago, and I am checking BLOG off my to-do list while Lonnie is at the grocery store.  We have no plans other than walking, reading, sleeping, and eating. And I will be taking photos.

We had awe-inspiring views as we drove up Hwy 1, but we wanted to get here and THEN do the photo thing. So, I have no ocean photos for today.

The road into our vacation rental:

 

The view from the house:

Where I will be sitting in a few minutes:

All of the photos were taken with my 18-200mm and have textures added in Photoshop.  The last one also has some de-saturation and split-toning (those chairs are pretty bright in real life!).

Melinda2 Comments

Day 271- In the Kitchen

I love my new Fiesta dishes!  Years ago when I first started collecting Blue Ridge Pottery, I fell in love with the Fiesta pitcher (but, out of loyalty to Blue Ridge, never bought one).  A week or so ago, my husband surprised me with a red Fiesta pitcher to go with our new dishes.  I have a feeling this is only the beginning. . .

In the kitchen is one of the themes this week for Our Daily Challenge on Flickr. My new Fiesta pitcher- and salt and pepper shakers- are in the background.

Melinda2 Comments

Day 269- Parting

My friend, Debbie is leaving today.  The visit has been all too short, but she wants to get home to see her daughter who is flying back to The Hague and to take care of her husband, Dale, who will most likely be starting another round of treatment for lymphoma soon.  But we expect another visit from both of them, because they will soon have a new grand-baby here in town!

 

This photo was layered with Kim Klassen’s texture, partings, for Texture Tuesday.

Melinda7 Comments

Day 265- w h i t e

One of the themes in my Flickr group is white this week.  Although I gravitate to bright colors, I think there is something special about white.  I gathered a few white objects from the futon room, craft room, junk room (depending on whom you ask. . .) to compose this simple image.

I slightly desaturated the photo and added a layer of Kim’s lightpaper texture at a low opacity.

 

Melinda1 Comment

Day 262- Autumn, NOT. . .

The prompt for this week’s Texture Tuesday is ORANGE.  I associate orange with autumn and Halloween, and although that season is around the corner, it isn’t showing itself too much around here yet (although it certainly is cooler today).

So. . . . today’s image is Faux Fall- fake leaves from Michael’s pulled out of a cupboard and shoved into a basket.  I added to the fakery  enhanced the image by applying a filter called Indian Summer from Color Efex Pro (did I mention that a mini version of Color Efex Pro came with my Wacom tablet? Delightful surprise!!!) before adding 3 layers of Kim’s hello texture.

Voila!

Melinda7 Comments