I may have to actually throw these away soon. . .
Sunflower Decay
I love sunflowers no matter what the stage of their life cycle. For me, there is beauty in their decay.
Portage Lake
Mountains, lake, snow, glaciers, wildflowers- just an ordinary Alaska view!
Old-Timey
Here is another version of the Ferry Building- a somewhat grungy black and white with a bit of texture added for an old-timey look.
Back to SF
I realized that I never posted my favorite Ferry Building shot from our brief San Francisco visit early in the summer. I took this photo the evening before Carol arrived- right after Lonnie discovered the view while he was looking for ice. This one, taken through glass, has better focus than the one I took the next night, even though it was handheld- no tripod. Go figure!
And here is another edit of the same image- black and white with a slightly different crop.
Off the Beaten Path
I decided on this restaurant for lunch even before we arrived in Alaska. It is in Hope, less than a half hour off the Seward highway, and it gets rave reviews for its food and atmosphere on Trip Advisor and in our guidebook. Our daughter tried to discourage us, saying it was a long drive through nothing very interesting and that the food and atmosphere was nothing special. But having no other lunch destination in mind on the way to Seward, we decided to go anyway. I was really excited to finally arrive- but then we discovered it was CLOSED for a wedding. And we were starving! Part of the reason for going there was for me to take photos (Lonnie was more interested in the food, as it was way past lunchtime)- so I snapped away for 10 minutes before heading back to the main highway and on to Seward.
I actually spent a lot of time editing this photo, attempting to create sort of a Bleach Bypass look. The most time-consuming part of the edit was moving the couple closer to the foreground so they became part of the scene, instead of specks in the background.
The below image is a vertical crop of the above photo. I took a vertical shot, but it wasn’t usable because of how much I had to crop off due to lens distortion with my 18-200 lens. Fortunately I had this version to play with. After cropping and correcting the distortion (I love the new Transform Tool in Lightroom!), I used a preset in On1 Effects, which I modified a bit- and was done in five minutes.
Adventures in Compositing, part 3
Here is the third (and final) version of my windmill photo (see Adventures in Compositing and Adventures in Compositing, part 2), which I used for this month’s photo club. It is a composite of the windmill and Granite Mountain- with lots of layers in Photoshop, including the use of Topaz Glow and Texture Effects and On 1 software. Fun to do!
Alone in a Crowd
from our Alaskan boat trip
Through the Clouds
Our boat trip along the Kenai fjords in Alaska was one of the most memorable travel experiences of my life. Despite the rain and fog and the constant rolling motion (4 foot swells in places, they said- is that unusual? I don’t know.) and sometimes rough waters, it was amazing! We spent most of our time on deck, except for when the rain became too much, and were constantly awestruck by the dramatic coastline and the opportunities to see whales, puffins, eagles, porpoises, seals, and sea lions. And oh yes- glaciers! My photos of the scenery include mostly gray shapes with water spots- not too many keepers, considering how many I shot.
Here is one of my better land/sea-scape shots- taken while the boat was in motion and there was little rain. I wish I could say exactly where on the map this was. The mountains seemed to rise right out of the sea- with snow and glaciers and clouds to round out the scene.
Stopped Me in My Tracks
These beautiful flowers stopped me dead in my tracks as my friend, Carol and I entered the restaurant where we had lunch in San Francisco. We both ended up taking a few photos- the flowers were so gorgeous! We ended up photographing them from different angles- and edited them in ways that were opposite from each other, as well as opposite of our usual styles. Carol’s photo is an impressionistic rendering- and mine is more of a standard photo, edited for clarity. It’s as if we switched styles!
Hotel Abstracts
When we were in San Francisco last month, I snapped a few photos of the lobby art and lights, which I think make some interesting abstracts.
Port of San Francisco
Another photo from our one day San Francisco visit:
Adventures in Compositing, part 2
I don’t know if there will be a Part 3. Time will tell.
A Different Take
As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve been trying some different photoshop techniques. Here is a very different take on my chamomile macro from the other day!
Adventures in Compositing
The topic for this month’s photo club is an interesting one: each member randomly drew a piece of paper which had a section of a map of Prescott and the surrounding area on it. Our photo had to be taken within our section of the map. I believe the word creative was used in the description. Gah!
Lonnie and I drove out to my area, and he immediately spied an old windmill, which stands in someone’s yard. Perfect! It was midday with no clouds and 95 degrees, so we planned to go back. The following week, we drove out there again about 9 a.m., and I had a nice chat with the owner of the property. The windmill was there before the land was developed and was evidently part of the original ranch. It still works, although he doesn’t have it going right now.
I had this brilliant (hah!) idea of taking photos of the windmill, a poppy, a street sign and Granite Mountain (visible from the street) and then creating a composite that would be very artsy. I need practice in making composites- both the technical side and the creative side. I never did get all the elements into the photo- maybe someday. And neither of the two composites look at all like I envisioned. I will probably use a plain windmill shot for the photo club.
Here is my first effort. Later in the week, I’ll post my second try.
melinda anderson photography 