New Growth

We are on the second week of our visit to our daughter’s family in Yellowstone National Park. A few days ago, we took our traditional drive through the park with our son-in-law as tour guide.  This time we drove up to Dunraven Pass, where we enjoyed beautiful views of the spring meadows and hills, the snow capped mountains, and, of course, bison and elk.

As we got higher and higher, part of the burn area from the 1988 fire was clearly visible ahead. But as we drew closer, we could see the small green trees that have grown up between the skeletal burned pines, as the forest renews itself.

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A small dried weed from last summer poked its way up through the snow.

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All photos are textured with Kim Klassen’s canvasback and 2110.

Linking up with Texture Tuesday.

 

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Owls!

Before we came, my son-in-law texted me a fantastic iPhone shot of a great horned owl that he took from the front porch here at Yellowstone.  I knew from my experience a couple years ago that there was probably a nest in the very high tree by the Visitors’ Center.  I photographed mama and babies very unsuccessfully back then, and I really hoped to get a better shot this time.  This morning I saw the other photographers lined up with their uber long lenses and tripods, and I joined them with my 18-200mm zoom and no tripod (I do have it with me, but it’s not going to help me get any closer).  I did get a couple photos that are better than last time, and they are super cropped. I’m hoping to get a better shot when they are on a lower branch or a roof.

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iPhoneography On The Road

Our road trip to Yellowstone gave me plenty of opportunity to practice my iPhoneography skills.  The road was long, but scenic, and I had fun editing shots as my husband did the driving.  Of course my Nikon was my main camera, but nothing beats a cameraphone for instant results- photos edited with iPhone apps, uploaded to Dropbox during the drive and immediately available on my laptop to post to my blog.

We stopped at Hoover Dam on the way to Yellowstone- first visit for both my husband and myself.  Both these photos were edited in Snapseed using the HDR filter.  I also warmed them up and added a bit of sharpening and “structure.”

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We spent the night in Idaho Falls, a familiar stop for us.  After dinner we drove over to the falls, where I snapped this photo.  I used Snapseed again for a simple edit (contrast and sharpening) and also used the selective adjust feature to add a bit of a vignette (lightening the middle and darkening the edges).  On my wishlist for Snapseed is a vignette filter! I do love the selective adjust feature however; it is similar to the control points used in Nik software.

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As you can see from this photo (edited with Waterlogue, we arrived at Yellowstone!

Painted in Waterlogue

I’m linking up today with Barb’s “app” happy Wednesday.  I learn so much from reading her posts and the others who link to her.

Keeping With The Times

 

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We were just seventeen . . .

When my husband and I got to Chico on Monday, we checked into our hotel and then headed over to Peet’s Coffee, my husband’s favorite coffee place in any town that has a Peet’s (we don’t have it in Arizona).  When I saw the Beatles mural on the wall down the street, I was ECSTATIC knowing that my friend, Carol was coming to town the next day.  We were pretty much Beatles fanatics during the sixties- so what better photo op could there possibly be than a Beatles mural (unless it was Paul or Ringo in the flesh!)?

As I was standing between two parked cars to snap these photos, the owner of one of the cars came along and offered to take a photo of both of us with the Fab Four.  We couldn’t resist!

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Linking up with Kim Klassen’s Friday Finds- we found the Beatles!

Kim Klassen dot Com

 

 

 

 

 

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Remembering

We were in Chico, my hometown, this week, because of business my husband had nearby.  It was a very brief and bittersweet visit, because I knew I might not have occasion to return, now that we live in Arizona.  My college roommate, Carol drove up from Sacramento to keep me company; I have some fun photos from that visit to share with you tomorrow!

On the way out of town yesterday, we stopped at the cemetery, where the ashes of my mother and three grandparents are located. On my other visits, I didn’t take time to really notice how beautiful the grounds are- or maybe it wasn’t at the same time of year. This time I took time to soak it all in.

Beautiful oaks shade the lawn.

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The artificial flowers we put in the vases by their vaults have disappeared. My mother would have disliked them anyway; she was a lady with impeccable taste!

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Going Up

I edited another photo of Sedona’s Bell Rock for this week’s Texture Tuesday. This one was taken from partway up (which is about as far as I got), and is edited with two layers of Kim’s canvasback (color burn blend mode) and a couple “magic” textures.  Happy April (no foolin’ )!

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They’re Here!

It’s been a wild few days in our usually quiet retirement home here in Prescott- the grandkids are here (along with their mom and dad)! Today, we drove over to Jerome and Sedona; the boys’ favorite part was getting out of the car finally and walking (running!) partway up Bell Rock.

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Their exuberance at being outside in a natural environment was evident!

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Fast and Loose

Playing fast and loose with the word, photography, I’ve had some fun playing with some of my older photos, turning them into painting-like images.  Here’s that same sailboat from a week ago- with a different crop and edited with filters and textures.

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And here’s a duck meet-and-greet down at the Benicia waterfront.

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It’s a sailboat!

When we lived in Benicia, I photographed the waterfront fairly often and would almost always take shots of and through the grasses (anise?) along the shore.  When we visited last month, I found myself making almost the same shots.  And here in Arizona, I do the same thing; there is something about grasses and weeds that call out to be photographed-at least by me.  This one was taken in Benicia; in fact, there is a sailboat in the background!14Feb2014-2395-EditLinking up with Friday Finds

Kim Klassen dot Com

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Two

We spent a few hours in Benicia on our California trip last week- long enough for me to visit the waterfront and take a few photos.

The photo below is of boats at the Yacht Club, with the refinery towers looming in background. I edited this in Photoshop, using a filter to “posterize” the image and adding one of the free Flypaper textures from Adobe Exchange.

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This is your basic Benicia waterfront photo, edited in Lightroom.

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LIGHT!

When I first started this whole photography thing, I literally couldn’t see the light.  I think it took me almost a year before I was able to really see how light differs from moment to moment, from place to place. And now I am obsessed with it.

While we were in California, I took advantage of the beautiful light (and Spring flowers) when taking photos. The theme for this week’s Texture Tuesday is light, and I think this photo demonstrates how light (in this case, backlighting) can enhance a photograph.

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Textured with bent edges and florence, by Kim Klassen.

Melinda10 Comments

Basil

When I visited Carol last week, I kept coming back to the basil in her back yard, which made a beautiful subject for my camera as I experimented with two of her lenses. The first two shots were taken with her 70-200 f/4 and the last with her 24-70 f/2.8; both are dream lenses!

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Carol kept urging me to post one of my basil shots and call it “What a pity, Basil.”  I had no idea what she was talking about! She finally explained here. 

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Little White Lights

Last night we returned home from an all too quick trip to California, where we managed to reconnect with many of our friends, despite the last minute notice and short time frame.  As I wrote in my last post, my friend, Carol, put us up for a couple nights in the Sacramento area while my husband had an appointment.  We drove down to the Bay Area Friday, where I dropped in on my school (where I had taught first grade for 23 years) and visited with some of my very dearest friends and colleagues. Saturday was a whirlwind- a visit with our HeartMath class at Unity of Walnut Creek, lunch out with a group from the class, afternoon coffee with two of my teaching partners (and dear friends), and a wonderful dinner at Sailor Jack’s with Jan and Jack (Jan is one of my Rapunzel friends- and the only one who was able to make the drive over from Petaluma this time).  I know we will be coming back, and we’ll catch up with those we didn’t manage to see on this latest visit.

As we walked out of Sailor Jack’s Saturday night, Lonnie said, “Take a picture of the lights.”  He knows how much I love the little white lights that dot all the trees along First Street (all year long now!). I only had my cell phone and just took the one shot, which I posted on Facebook.  Last night, I converted it to black and white, which I may like even better.

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