It's Fun to Find Stuff

Kim Klassen has started a new link up called Friday Finds. This is what I found at my second favorite antique store in Colorado City, TX a couple weeks ago. I don't think the pitcher is all that old but the color was to die for. (It said FTD on the bottom.) There were 2 sizes of the cobalt blue bottle. I should have gotten them both. They just happened to go perfectly with the little bouquet I had just picked.

f/9.5 1/30s 400 ISO Canon 50mm f/1.8II

Textured with: kk_cherish Muti 93%

kk_grungeframed SoftL 42%

This was my before. What a difference! Good thing I shoot in raw. I believe I was attempting 'total' manual settings that day.

f/6.7 1/90s 400 ISO Canon 50mm f/1.8II.  A little 'haze' play in the Lightroom channels. Background, Allyse Overlays. 

f/6.7 1/90s 400 ISO Canon 50mm f/1.8II.  More 'hazy' play in Photoshop Curves Adjustment.

Lightroom Adjustments, f/5.6 1/90s 400 ISO Canon 18-135 126mm.

f/6.7 1/30s 400 ISO Canon 50mm f/1.8II

And a shot from above. Dreamy look from lowered clarity and split-toning play.

Come join us for the Link Up at the Cafe.

Have a great weekend!

Peonies of Grief

The tornado at Moore, Oklahoma took the lives of many yesterday including children at 2 elementary schools.

DistressedFX, Snapseed, Over, Photoshop

Kim Klassen texture Teatime, Overlay 61%

Sometimes it looks like chaos.

But it'll be ok.

Linking up with Texture Tuesday.

Hill Country Road Trip

A quick road trip to see the wildflowers in Central Texas was how we spent our last Saturday and Sunday.
The bluebonnets were few and far between but this scene made up for it. Taken with iPhone5 and edited in Snapseed. Unfortunately I can't remember what ap I used to get the 'yellowness' I tried to recreate several places and nothing looked familiar. I need a better system for recorded that kind of info. (or less apps, NOT.)

This one was actually edited in Photoshop.

Taken with my Canon7D and edited in ACR and Photoshop

We also stopped to taunt some wooly sheep. Did you notice the 'guard' dog? He blends in quite nicely. They got nervous and started running away until hubby started making noises. Then they had to stop and stare. They were quite hilarious to watch.

This looked interesting as we passed by so hubby obliged me and stopped. (He has become more tolerant of my photography obsession since I had 2 photographs recently get into juried shows and one actually winning an award.) I set my camera on the HDR setting for this. Processed in Snapseed.

The town of Winters boasted a very interesting agriculture museum (I have lots of pics for another day). There was an old hotel that we got to wander through and several unique old buildings. One was a privately owned with a few partial broken windows that enabled us to see the treasures within. Several very old scales and tons of goodies. The man next door said the owner intends in a few years(when he retires) to turn it into a working original blacksmith shop. How cool will that be?
In Ballinger we stumbled upon a 'vintage' flea market. It's held every quarter at a different city in the area. I found the coolest, strangest old camera. Which reminds me, I need to google it and see what it actually does. More on it later. I'll leave you with this shot of an old adding machine that I processed in Haiku HD and Image Blender. Blender makes it possible to layer 2 photos or a texture and change the opacity and blend mode. So awesome.

Linking up with Lissa for Walk and Click Wednesdays

Texture and Haze

It's time for Texture Tuesday again. This week is anything goes but I'm on a texture kick at the moment so this was done with Kim Klassen's 0303 texture. Join us at the cafe.

I love this quote. Thought it was fairly fitting for this shot. I'm loving having a 'spot' in my studio to shoot still life photos. It's a little cramped and the light still isn't the best because of where the sun has been coming up. But it's moving north a little every day. Yeah! And I'm compensating. 

Before and afters of the studio coming soon.

This was my Lightroom edit before the texture, screen layer, and gradient haze layer. Can't decide which I like the best. However, I think the first has a hint of mystery to it.

 My layers panel.

Walk and Click or should I say Drive?

I shot from the car today as I drove out into the country. It did not disappoint.

I love bare trees against the sky. And soon it will be spring so I'm capturing as many as I can.

The clouds were glorious and a string of geese were cooperative also.

 I'll share a great Lightroom tip at the end about the photo below.

I happened upon a gaggle of geese feeding very close to the road and they became quite nervous.

Fly away, fly away. At least they aren't eating the winter wheat.

 I also stirred up a large group of birds playing in these tall grasses.

I thought they'd all be sparrows, but when I zoomed in, there were red-winged black birds in the mix. I don't see how they keep from running into each other. They are so fun to watch as they swoop here and there.

I love these little sparrows in the weeds.

 There always seems to be some old machinery around.

 And an old truck by an awesome tree.

 And a totally cool tree all by itself. (Well I did clone out a pile of dirt in the left corner.)

All photos edited in Lightroom using split-toning. (I love to make my skies more turquoise.)

Here's what I discovered today:

On the photo I mentioned earlier, the horizon was not straight. But when I tried to straighten it, I felt it cropped too much off the right side of my tree. (my preference) Here is the before:

I opened the Lens Correction Panel and played with the horizontal slider until I got this. It did change the shape of my tree so you'll need to be careful about what subject matter you dare to distort. AND if you look closely part of the photo is now 'missing' in the lower right corner. So a little more crop off the bottom was in order.

I did try it on the 'lone' tree above but didn't like the result. When I straightened it normally, it made it look like he tree was leaning. So I'm pretending we actually have a few hills around here.

Linking up with Walk and Click Wednesdays at Lissa's blog. Get out and shoot and join us there.

Here's to seeing the beauty around you, even if it's a dreary winter day (like here). At least we got some badly needed rain last night.

Beyond Layers, Day 101 -Cup Challenge

Back to Beyond Layers... This week, a challenge: a cup, a book, and an accessory. The quote is so NOT me. But I liked it just the same. This is currently what my husband I are reading together at night. (Oh dear, I think we're in for it.) I used Chaos texture by Kim Klassen. twice, once at soft light and once at multiply with low opacity. Added a custom curves adjustment in the blue and green channels. Added brushwork using Grunge Swirl Brushes by me. and then took it into RadLab for a little more adjusting. Text is UglyQua and is set to multiply. see before below...
It was nice to get back to some Photoshop this week. I had been playing too much in Lightroom with editing photos and my computer gets slower if I edit from within Lightroom. sigh.... I may have to try and find a used one year old 17" Macbook Pro to replace my nearly 4 year old one.

After

Before, with just a touch of Camera Raw editing.