Intentional camera movement (moving and/or wiggling the camera while taking a photo) created this photo which I took from Photoshop into Topaz Studio to add a painterly layer at low opacity.
Surfer 2
I think these will be my last surfing photos- but no promises!
Surfer
These shots are from the second day of shooting- and I didn’t have a good spot on the pier. So no closeups- both of these are cropped.
Herd Mentality
Newport Beach scene in black and white.
The Scene
Newport Beach scene
Going Down
Here’s another view of Newport Beach at sunset.
Another Winter Shore
We drove to Southern California at the end of last week to visit our son and his wife for the last time before their much anticipated baby boy is born- and went a day early so we could see the ocean again. We walked in the late afternoon and early morning and so enjoyed being on the almost deserted beach!
Just waves . . .
I never get tired of watching the waves as they rise, crash, and are pulled back out to sea.
Wave watching from the Huntington Beach pier. . .
Surf’s Up!
It was so much fun to stand on the pier taking photos of the surfers at July’s championship competition at Huntington Beach! Oh how I wished for a longer lens (these are cropped). . .
Stalker
The morning we left, we took a quick walk on the beach, and I must have taken at least 20 photos of a man and his mother as they came walking toward me. I think he thought I was stalking them, but what I really liked was the composition of the S-curve in the sand (and gull) with the dog walker in the background. A peaceful scene!
Into the Mystic
Another digital art/alternative landscape/multiple exposure piece from Alaska.
I’m kind of at the point where I don’t know what to call my work anymore. Is it digital art- but it’s all photography? Is it multiple exposure- but it’s done in photoshop? Whatever it is, I enjoy doing it!
Alternative Landscapes
Editing photos for creative expression, relaxation, and just plain fun is an essential part of my photography life.  I don’t paint or do crafts- so I create with the camera and the computer. I respect and enjoy traditional photography, but I sometimes like to tiptoe a bit onto the photography wild side.
Yesterday I revisited some of last summer’s photos from Alaska. At the time, I was fascinated with the stark shapes of the rocks and peaks jutting out of the sea, but I was disappointed in many of the resulting shots when edited traditionally. But I had so much fun creating the “alternative landscapes” below.
Balboa Abstract
It’s no secret that I love abstracts and photos that may not be exact replicas of the scene I am photographing. I started manipulating photos the first year I got my camera (and not always in a good way . . .), and right now I am obsessed with multiple exposures.  Here is one I took of Balboa Pier- all done in camera with minor editing in Lightroom.
The “in camera” techniques are frustrating for this Photoshop lover- but there is something about the unpredictability of the result that makes it fun!
Beach Yoga
Observed practicing a one-legged standing pose (yes, he did have 2 legs)
Ruby’s on the Pier
While we were in Newport Beach, we would walk every day over to Balboa Pier, and on our first day we split a chocolate- banana milkshake at Ruby’s- yum! I said I wanted to come back in the evening and get a shot with it lit up, so the next night I brought my tripod along as we walked over at sunset. Our son, Matt was with us, and wasn’t too enthusiastic about me setting up my tripod on the pier just to take a photo of the diner. I wanted to wait until it got darker, but ended up snapping my shot right after the sun went down. No, we didn’t have dinner there. 😦  But Matt did agree it made a good photo when he saw the edited version. 🙂
melinda anderson photography 