What with traveling and teaching a new class I almost forgot to post the image of the week on the image of the week site (it made it to facebook). I chose a painterly treatment to soften the details of the people on the barge. I kind of wish I had some people standing on the bridge to add some balance and color but you can’t have everything. I actually had to wait a bit for some people on the walkway to clear out.
Category: Painterly
Grizzly Peak Spring
I haven’t done much with Topaz Impression lately so I thought it was time. This image of Grizzly Peak was done in the style of Georgia O’Keefe. Hmmm, what if Georgia had come to Southern Oregon instead of New Mexico? Anyway, this was shot last week when things were more springlike. I know for a fact that there is more snow on the mountain today and I’m not sure how the trees fared in the recent winds. But, I now know a good spot to go and capture the changing moods and seasons of Ashland’s own special mountain.
Tree Abstract
It was mostly about post processing this week though I did get out yesterday to find some Wood Ducks. Still I liked this abstract enough to designate it image of the week.
This was shot at the butterfly grove in Pismo Beach. I used a low ISO and slow shutter speed to capture this while deliberately moving the camera.
Then in Photoshop I added vibrance and saturation. Next I took it into Topaz Texture Effects and just started looking for something I liked in the presets. Once I found it I drilled down and started playing with the preset filters. I changed the texture to give it a more foresty look and changed the light leak to give a hint of a sunburst in the upper left. Then I added a border just for visual interest. I finished it off in Color Efex Pro with an image border so it wasn’t totally squared off.
I like that it is still obviously about trees but abstract enough that it is definitely not a straight photograph nor could it be easily reproduced. I think for photography to be art it should not be easy to reproduce, which is getting harder and harder to do.
After Sunset
If there is one thing I’ve learned as a photographer it is to not pack up my gear and go home as soon as the sun sets. It’s usually about a half hour later that the magic starts to happen. Such was the case on this evening. I did not manipulate the colors here it really was this pink as the ocean reflected the afterglow in the sky. I opted for a painterly treatment to soften the rocks in keeping with the beauty of the scene.