I can’t get enough of photographing California poppies. This one looked pretty good out of the camera but I did a little magic in post processing by adding detail and saturation and then treated it ever so slightly in my new Topaz Glow software.
Tulip with Raindrops
It was kind or rainy this week but I happened to be out and about with the camera just after a shower and captured this Tulip still covered with raindrops and backed by a beautiful snowball bush in bloom.
Dutch Iris
I went for a camera walk this morning and found this dutch iris in the flowerbed of one of my neighbors. I few lingering drops from last nights rain.
I never get tired of photographing flowers. This one just needed a few blemishes taken care of with the spot healing brush or content aware fill. Then some detail and saturation and ever so slight darkening of the corners in Color Efex Pro.
Bluebonnets
This week has been more about gardening than photography so in that spirit I went back to the Texas pictures and created a painterly rendition of some bluebonnets with a single paintbrush. I just like the colors!
Iris Garden
It has been a week of playing catch up with household and yard chores and starting new OLLI classes as both student and teacher. So, not much photography got done. In fact I was surprised that I hadn’t even imported my Texas images into Lightroom. But that has now been corrected and I am ready to go full bore on post processing.
Due to flat lighting my flower pictures turned out a lot better than my travel pictures. This Iris garden was found in the King William district in San Antonio. I added a lot of detail and some saturation to get the vivid colors. I think this one would look good printed on canvas.
Barge Tour San Antonio
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.
Shorebird
Well, this week I spent most of my time working on a slide show to use as a demonstration in a PowerPoint class I am going to be teaching. I was using my California trip as an example so I chose this photo from the group for the image of the week. It’s bordering on the abstract f you don’t know what you are looking at. It is the shadow of a pier on the beach with waves coming in and a shorebird looking for something to eat.
Spider web with dew
I was wandering around North Mountain Park in Ashland when I spotted this spider web covered with dew drops. I didn’t realize I had the spider too until I got it home, though I probably shouldn’t admit that. It did require some cropping, which put me in mind of getting a 180mm macro lens, and I did a lot of sharpening to get the dew drops to look just right.
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.
Porch Chair
It was all about the post processing in this one as the shaded porch did not make for good light the the blue chair against the blue house didn’t work as well as I thought. I was considering a black and white treatment but after adding detail and saturation and adjusting the exposure using levels, I took it into Topaz texture effects where I found several looks that worked well. I ended up choosing the burning dust preset as it best fit my vision of how the chair should look.