Heartfelt

  I am off to a slow start for 2017, there is a lot going on but decided to take time out for a little
stillness which I needed.   I enjoy when I can just place and maneuver pieces and float fabrics until they speak to me and then when the light wraps itself around and caresses them, well it just does my heart good! 

Feeling Like A Third Wheel

  Somehow I neglected to post this image to my blog last fall even though it is probably one of my favorites from 2016.  I had way too much fun coming up with stories and scenarios with these three pears but it made for a great afternoon of photography.
 

Honey Crisp Time

Honey Crisp apple season is as great as Pumpkin Spice season to this girl!

 

New Camera with Flippy Dippy Screen

 I have been using the Canon 7DMkii for about a year and a half but I always shoot in manual and when they moved the exposure level meter to the side instead of at the bottom it was darn near impossible to see, especially in daylight.   It was a struggle just couldn't live with so when the 80D came out I made the decision to actually go down a step in cameras but am so much happier with the features on the Canon 80D.   One of the most helpful features is an articulating screen, I think I will really find it useful for still life photos, especially the top down.

Old Car City USA

  Our vacation a couple of weeks ago included going to Old Car City USA in White, Georgia.  Their claim was to have 34 acres of rusty, crusty, patina covered cars, trucks and other modes of transportation, predominately American made.  We were a little disappointed in it once we got there, I think they need to measure their property again and a lot of the vehicles were really stripped of features we wanted to photograph.  We still had an enjoyable day but I do have to say I will never, the Lord willing be moving south with all that humidity!

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

Still in the coffee shop and I could of photographed these floors for hours, I plan on making my own textures out of these images for future use on other projects.  The possibilities are endless with manipulation of split toning, hue and saturation. 

Tulips & Textures

  I have finally had some time to play with an image using textures, I love my 2LO textures, they are my go to textures out of the thousands I have collected.  I also am finding that I really like the square crop, I think since I started following Instagram I have been drawn to that format.  I never really paid much attention to tulips when I was younger but the last few years I have fallen in love with them, I think because they represent new beginnings and fresh hope.

Dominic

  Normally I don't take very many pictures of people but we were at Dominic's basketball tournament and I decided to take my camera to the last game.  I noticed a couple of the other players tossing the basketballs in front of him as he was waiting for his turn to run a route during warm ups.  I was lucky in my timing and captured him framed between two of them. I felt it would lend itself well to b&w, I then added a radial blur, grunge texture and vignette.

Boring Bird on a Fence

  This started as a boring image of a cute little bird on a fence but I decided to try a composite with texture to see what I could do with it.  I started in On1 and layered the bird image on top of the background and masked the background through at 100% opacity, then I painted in and out at about 20% the edges until I was happy with it.  Moved into effects and applied a texture, back into layers where I applied my background on top this time, using the lighten blending mode.  Now into LR where I did some basic adjustment, radial filter and vignette.  Not perfect but for my first composite type image I am happy with the outcome.  Now for more YouTube videos to learn some more techniques.

Bird on fence image

 

Background

Finished composite
 



Weighing In

One of the treasures Dan was able to inherit from his Mom after he and his siblings were there one weekend to help go through some things in storage was this old vintage scale.  I have been wanting one of these for such a long time and to have come from the family makes it all the more special.  I have lots of ideas for this piece that is for sure.  While I like the  straight out of camera image I couldn't help but play with it using some textures, two different versions which gives it a complete different feel.

 



 



   

Under Exposed

Our photo forum technique was over/under expose and the color burnt orange.  I have had this old muffin tin I have wanted to use for some time and while looking at the filling in my centerpiece on the coffee table my idea came to me, so I started separating my potpourri and filled in the rest with some bay leaves.  I underexposed by a stop and a third and added one 2LO texture.

 



Howling at the Moon

Sometimes I myself don't know how the squirrels take over my thought process, I was looking for flowers, ended up coming across a Christmas picture of Thor, thought the light shade looked like a moon, then I remembered I had a texture with a moon and down the rabbit hole I went.  I am happy with the results but not sure what a therapist would have to say.

original

Kerstin Frank textures plus I loss count number of
other textures and layers 

Purple Glow

  I revisited some photos from this summer to work on for a presentation I was doing for photo forum on textures.  So not my comfort level but I survived the presentation and enjoyed working the images.

original

2LO textures

Sunny Days

  It has been at least a month since I have played with layers and textures on an image and let me say I have missed it and realize how quickly I can loose what ever little bit of knowledge I was starting to grasp.  Repetition is the key to this old dog being able to remember what and how and I need to not go so long in between projects or it is like starting over again at this point.  While I like the bright saturated colors of the original, I went for a more subtle tone on my textured image, I guess that is why it is called art.


2LO Textures and On1

Original with only basic LR adjustments
 




"Old Red"

On a road trip earlier this summer we went to the NE part of Nebraska and South Dakota.  On our way home near Verdigre, Ne we came upon this old beauty, it had just rained and the colors really popped.  I decided to dress her up a little with a few texture layers.  I used LR, PSE and On1 and some free textures I found on Flickr.

Rose with Textures

  I haven't played with a texture for awhile and decided to use one of the images from yesterday.  I had saved this quote that I came across and thought it went well with the image.

She was calling...

Coming home from Omaha this fall we took highway 75 out of Papillion and came across this barn, it was windy as all get out but I had to have Dan stop so I could get take her picture.


Original

2LO and Shadowhouse Textures
 

Coming Soon Attraction

Soon we will have butterflies to be chasing but in the mean time I decided to work on one from last year that I took.  I did my basic adjustments in LR and used a preset then moved into PSE to apply my textures.  Having some issues with On1 and my laptop right now, hopefully I can get it figured out in the next couple of days.

My 1st Self Made Texture

I am intrigued with all the textures that are available and have wanted to learn to make my own.  I found a tutorial and gave it a try in PSE.

and the Oscar goes to...

  Our inspiration for photo forum this week and a pretty plain jane image of a hawk that I had so I decided to see what I could do with it.  Usually you apply the textures over the image but this time I applied the image over the texture and then masked it through.  I then added a layer with an image of a hawk tattoo pattern and found the Birdman font. I started in LR, then PSE, then On One and back into LR.   I definitely need to learn to use my Wacom tablet, this is incentive to get that bad boy out and learn to master it instead of letting it master me.  Ha!