Archive for January, 2011

The Visitor

Heron

PAD January 26, 2011

I opened my front door a little while ago to run out for the mail and froze in surprise when I saw a heron standing between me and the mailbox! I unfroze and ran for my camera, and proceeded to the yard where I followed it around trying to get a picture before it flew away. The pictures aren’t so great, but my amazement was immense. My house is in one of the busiest neighborhoods in Nashville, and there isn’t a body of water bigger than a drainage ditch anywhere close.

That was one very lost heron!

Heron

Heron

Heron

2011
01/26
CATEGORY
Pets & Animals
TAGS

7 comments

Sunflower Roundup

Sunflower

PAD January 22, 2011

This is a sunflower with the polar coordinates distort filter applied. I don’t know if I love the results of this filter, or I just love the surprise when you click that last OK, and see what has happened.

2011
01/22
CATEGORY
Flowers and Gardens
Photography
TAGS


4 comments

Polar Exploration

Flowers

PAD January 21, 2011

Yesterday a photo by Patricia Stalter using the PS Polar Coordinates Distortion Filter was featured in an email from BetterPhoto.com that caught my attention and sent me to the computer to explore the possibilities on some of my own images. I took this one a step further by layering the original undistorted flower on top of the distorted one. I only did that because the distorted version didn’t look quite finished to me. Oh, and I also added a texture layer before the distortion steps. All the steps and accompanying photos are too long for the PAD, but I’ll post them to my longer blog. Maybe I’ll do it today since, appropriately enough, we’re iced in following yesterday’s snow storm and the overnight freezing of all that wet rain/sleet/snow.

Communications from  my children have alerted me that I will be having company if schools and daycares are closed, which would change my blog writing plans. “Snow days” only apply to grandparents and grandchildren. The middle generation evidently feels compelled to go out and engage in bumper cars.

Flowers with a texture layer added.

Original image with a texture layer

2011
01/21
CATEGORY
Flowers and Gardens
Photography
TAGS

3 comments

Wigs and Lips

Store window

PAD January 20, 2011

Fifi Mahoney’s is a one-of-a-kind glamour stop for wigs, make-up and accessories in the French Quarter, New Orleans. Picture taking is not allowed inside, but there’s no rule against standing outside and taking one of the window display, where you can also get the reflection of the neon lips from the store across the street.

New Orleans has its seamy side, so, if you add  the mystery of reflective lights outside and a little darkness, you are free to imagine any story you like about Fifi’s perfectly innocent window. A Paint the Moon texture layer and a curves adjustment helped me accomplish that.

Store Window

Original image shot in mid-day.

Store Window

Window with a texture layer

2011
01/20
CATEGORY
Cityscapes
TAGS




5 comments

Back-up Foul-up

Alstroemeria

PAD January 19, 2011

At the end of 2010 I finally did something I’ve been meaning to do for years. I bought two backup hard drives, so I could use one, keep the other one off-site and then switch them every few weeks.  Oh, so safe! I also have a third hard drive and that is where my photos reside, not on the computer hard drive. This post follows a theme of mine lately – the best laid plans!

Last week I bought a bouquet at the grocery to take some flower macros. The alstroemeria pictured above is a common filler in grocery bouquets, and I love them because they are very photogenic. Following a pleasant session on my computer where I tried out several and applied one texture layer to the alstroemeria, there occurred a silent flash of the flower and it disappeared. Who knows where it went, now that I have a retail shelf full of backup drives? Further investigation revealed that I no longer have access from Lightroom to my pictures on my photo backup drive.

Am I panicked? Certainly not. Merely breathing with more shallow breaths than usual, and I’ve called the cavalry. Again.

I have a few photos ready to post the my PAD, but if they run out before the cavalry arrives, there will be an absence (I will not tempt the gods by using the word ‘short’ in combination with ‘absence’) of my PAD while the matter is investigated. I will be here somewhere practicing breathing exercises.

2011
01/19
CATEGORY
Flowers and Gardens
TAGS


4 comments

Pirate’s Alley

PAD January 18, 2011During my last visit to New Orleans, I took a picture of Pirate’s Alley, which in this view runs beside St. Louis Cathedral toward Jackson Square and the River. It was just after a rain and the paving stones were shiny from water and everything looked fresh, but the sky was blown out. I tried out a new Paint the Moon texture layer on it, painting away the texture on the rest of the photo by using a layer mask. I think it fixed the blown out sky problem nicely. I also added some frame edges from OnOne PhotoFrame.

2011
01/18
CATEGORY
Cityscapes
TAGS





5 comments

Summer in Winter

Violas

PAD January 17, 2011

Pansies and violas are our winter flowers, but after the freezing temperatures we’ve had, these violas look like they’re barely on life support. The picture was taken before the freeze with a Lensbaby Fisheye, and then combined with a texture layer.

2011
01/17
CATEGORY
Flowers and Gardens
TAGS


5 comments

Iris Field

Iris

PAD January 12, 2011

I have been loving the snow and winter walks, but my thoughts are turning to spring.  This state of mind was helped along by a message from my friend Cindy, alerting me to the textures and actions available from Paint the Moon. I couldn’t resist trying them out on some iris I photographed last spring. First, of course, I couldn’t resist buying them!

I’ve seen spring flowers in Nashville in February in years past, and we’re only 2-1/2 weeks from February. I refuse to think about the ice storm we had in February that knocked out power, including ours, in most of Nashville for a week.

2011
01/12
CATEGORY
Flowers and Gardens
TAGS



8 comments

Blizzard

Winter Landscape

PAD January 11, 2011

We had a beautiful, non-threatening snow yesterday, and this photo was shot after all the snow had fallen, but the addition of a Get Totally Rad Texture Layer, Foxy Laurinda, adds a snow storm look to the scene. This is the result of some play time, where I tried different things just to see how they would look.  I can envision many other directions for this particular photo. The original, an in-camera motion blur, is posted below for comparison between the source photo and the variation.

Snow Scene

2011
01/11
CATEGORY
Nature and Landscape
TAGS



3 comments

Bamboo with Snow

Bamboo with Snow

PAD January 10, 2011

The weather report got it right this time. We went to bed without snow, and woke up with 3 inches on the ground. This is the second significant snowfall this year, and some years we get none! Since it’s still dark outside, I am posting a picture I took on our beautiful Christmas day snow. It is an in-camera motion blur of some bamboo bent over in heavy snow. I zoomed the lens out while pressing the shutter, in shutter priority, somewhere around a half a second.

2011
01/10
CATEGORY
Abstracts
TAGS



4 comments