This was the best sunset picture from last week’s stay at Gold Beach on the Oregon Coast. It benefited greatly from some detail extraction and added saturation in Nik Color Efex Pro. I think this one would look good printed on metal.
Category: Landscape
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.
Sunset with Dog
This is an image I passed by in earlier editing because the sky was overexposed. It finally occurred to me as I sifted through images at the end of the year that I had the correct exposure on another frame without the dog. So, I blended the two images in Photoshop and came up with this beauty.
How did I do that, you may ask. Just open both images in Photoshop. Put the dog image on the bottom and the good sky image on the top. Add a layer mask to the top image. Select the brush tool and paint with black let the dog come through. I used the lines of the ocean and the rocks shadow to get a nice blend. I also had to insert a levels layer between the two images to help get the exposures to line up.
Pear Orchard with Mountains
This pear orchard in Talent is not five minutes from my house. I was sitting on the deck of a retreat center and wishing I could come back every day for a year to photograph the changing seasons with this awesome view.
I had to work it a little to control the haziness in the mountains. Added some saturation to bring out the colors of the trees and grass. And it called out for a frame so I gave it one but saved a master without just in case I want to order a large gallery wrap some day.
Seascape
I spent a few days exploring Redwoods State and National Parks on California’s north coast this week. It wasn’t until the last day that I allowed myself a stroll through the Crescent City harbor area and now I’m wishing I had spent more time there. How often do you get fishing boats and a lighthouse all in one picture?
It was early morning at the time so this image needed some brightness and saturation added. I finished it off with a Cezanne treatment in Topaz Impression.
Mt. Shasta
Even when the birds are making themselves scarce it is worth a trip to Tule Lake just to see the beautiful views of Mt. Shasta. In this image I was experimenting with Topaz adjust and found the vibrance preset did a good job of cutting through the haze. I also added some saturation and sharpening and added a border, which may have been a mistake as it crowds the top of the mountain a little.
Overgrown Fence
Well, I had a devil of a time coming up with an image of the week this week. None of them seemed quite good enough. Of course coming back empty handed from my trip to Klamath Falls to photograph dancing grebes probably didn’t help.
But I like this one I took just down the alley from my house of a neglected garden fence. I gave it some treatments to emphasize the feeling of decay and abandonment.
Purple Vetch with Horse
I had thought to go to California to look for wildflowers this week but the weather was a little iffy for getting over the Siskiyous and back. Then I noticed the hills in my own backyard were turning purple. A short walk from my doorstep brought me to this view and the horse graciously posed to add an element of interest.
Some detail added in post helped give definition to an otherwise dull sky. I would like to try again with a little more light on the subject if the sun ever comes out again.
Orchards in bloom
I showed my favorite picture from this week on the Klamath Basin blog (http://jeannehoadley.com/Klamath). It was the white Pelican in case you were wondering. But I felt I needed to come up with something new. I was afraid I had missed the peak of the pear blossoms but there are still plenty of them out there. My challenge with this image was flat lighting and clouding skies. but I did like the composition.
So, I took it into Color efex pro and did the usual magic (detail, brilliance/warmth, darken/lighten center)) and I still wasn’t happy with it. So I gave it a Film Efex Vintage filter and that gave it more of the look I wanted. I also added a border. Some images just need a border. I still think I need to go back on a sunnier day closer to sunset but I could hang this one on my wall so it passes muster.
Trees in Fog
Driving south on Hwy 101 along the Oregon Coast I was taken with the graphic look of the trees in a light fog. When I downloaded the image though it had gone completely monochrome. So I decided to add back the color in my mind using a bi-color filter in Nik Color Efex pro. I’m very happy with the result.