Well, I think I have milked the California trip images for about as long as I dare. The good news is signs of spring are starting to pop up in the form or crocuses, the weather looks pretty good next week and I still need to get back to the Klamath Basin before the eagles fly away.
This birdhouse I found at the gift shop at the Santa Barbara botanic garden. It took a little cropping, a lot of exposure adjustment and some texture treatment to get it to where I felt it was worthy of posting. Still on the fence about whether I would hang it on my wall.
I was going for an ethereal look with meaning to be read into it by the viewer. I think that’s all I want to say about it because I want you to find your own meaning not project from mine.
was shot at midday and the light was horrible. So I decided to run with it and grunge it up as much as possible. I used the vintage film effects in Nik Color Efex Pro and then took it into Topaz Texture Efects where believe it or not the Oceanside Glaze preset was perfect for the look I wanted. Then back to Nik for a funky border. I have to say I really like it!
idea of doing a virtual gallery show on my mission pictures all in bla
I just did a webinar on black and white processing so of course I had to find something that would benefit from experimentation. This mission bell from Santa Inez filled the bill. I added a lot of detail to bring out the texture in the stucco and also some contrast which helped show the detail in the bell and iron work. I’m think now maybe I should have cropped a little from the upper right corner to improve the composition but overall I like it and would definitely hang it on my wall.
lights of our visit to the elephant seal rookery was this battle between two alpha males for dominance of the beach. You can see the cars from previous battles as well as some blood from this one on their necks.
nother duck from yesterday’s outing. This Merganser was hard on the heels of his lady love. Guess it is that time of year for ducks too.
ing that never never land where art meets photogaphy. And this image is a great example. It started with a tree that I shot at low ISO and slow shutter speed while deliberately moving the camera. That gave me the nice light streaks. Then I took it into Photoshop and increased the saturation. Then I took it into Topaz Texture Effects and just started looking for a look I liked. Then I drilled down and started messing with the textures and light leaks and finally came up with this image that I love. You can still see the tree in there somewhere and the texture I chose gives a hit of a forest. The light leak suggests sunbeams streaming through but I took the opacity down to make it subtle. I would definitely hang this one on my wall!
I see I didn’t post any of the sunset pictures in the Winter project folder. I like this one because it is so idyllic and could be anywhere palm trees go. I overdid the saturation a little on purpose to highlight the colors in the sky. And I added an edgy border just to keep you from getting too drawn into the ideal.