Layers of Colour

Don’t you think colour looks better than color? One of my favorite quotes is “Keep calm and fake a British accent,” so this is in that spirit (nothing to do with Brexit. . .).

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The above is from last week’s trip to the Grand Canyon. The hazy sky desaturated the colors, which I brought back with Lightroom’s Dehaze brush and some other adjustments. THEN I added a very slight adjustment with Topaz Glow, which is such a cool little plug-in- it does things I don’t know how to do otherwise. Very fun! The frame is from On1 Effects.

 

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The Dark Side

I’ve been experimenting with some new (to me) Photoshop techniques which are a departure from my usual style- if I indeed have a style. No textures, more obvious textures, frames, and now this:

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What? A black background? Drama? Not my usual thing, but I like the effect on this photo.

And now this:

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Holy Cow! If you use Photoshop, you probably recognize the Topaz Glow filter (a new purchase), which I used almost full strength on this photo. A little over the top- but FUN!

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Made for Climbing

After we picked up our friends, Joan and Rudy at the airport in Mesa a couple weeks ago, we had an al fresco diner dinner under the trees at Joe’s Farm Grill in Gilbert-what a delightful place! We fell in love with the HUGE trees that seemed to be made for climbing- in fact, NO CLIMBING signs were everywhere.

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Wouldn’t you love to sit in the fork of this tree?

 

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Spirit Room

When we had visited Jerome in the past, we’d always taken note of the Spirit Room, a bar on the corner of the main drag. We had never been actually able to get inside, but always paused outside to listen to the band inside and to observe the scene- motorcycles pulling up out front and the crowd spilling out onto the sidewalk. I guess we had never been there early in the day before, because when we went in to get some water (yes, water) last Saturday, it was basically empty. While we sat and drank our waters, the motorcycles began to pull up, and by the time we left, it was getting full.

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Golden Morning

I guess it does pay to get up early, even though you’re retired. It’s a rare day that I don’t wake up before the sun comes up; however actually getting dressed and out of the house is more challenging. The golden light backlighting the flowers after sunrise caused me to dash outside with the camera- it seems like Spring is here at last!

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Fun with Thistles

Purple thistles abound in our area! We have a lot of weeds and native plants in the strips along the roads and sidewalks and in fields near our house, and this time of year is great for finding them in bloom. And every year I photograph thistles.

I added textures to these thistle photos and then took them into On1 for frames, stepping outside the box a bit when I chose these cool emulsion borders.

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Imperfect

This week, my little photo group is meeting to discuss photography and share photos. We took photos this time that have some aspect(s) of the principles of wabi-sabi. Here are three of my photos that celebrate imperfection and the passage of time.

Just ordinary stuff- some frayed dishtowels, a basket detail, and my childhood cereal bowl and creamer:

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