Around the House at Christmas

I'm so impressed with this 24-70 lens I rented that I may just buy it. Oh yeah, I'm paying for a ton of dental work right now. Hmmmm, I can probably wait till my birthday. That would be a great way to celebrate and my mouth should be finished by then.
Here are a few I took around the house this holiday.
Not that these are anything special, but isn't that bokeh gorgeous? I never thought about using it as a 'macro' but looks like it will work for me.

f4.0 1/90sec

f4.0 1/25sec

f4.0 1/90sec

f4.5 1/90sec

Hope your holidays were fabulous!

Friday Finds, Daisy Bokeh

Good morning! It's Friday Finds over at Kim's blog and this week I found…

You can pick a daisy and stick it the dewy morning grass to capture some great bokeh! I believe I'll do this more often. All shots with my Canon 100mm.

Some presets used are Kim's.

f/4, 1/500, ISO 100

f/3.5, 1/350, ISO 100

f/4, 1/350, ISO 100

f/2.8, 1/1000, ISO 100

A matching bug!

f/8, 1/125, ISO 100

Don't you just love the randomness of daisies?

f/8, 1/125, ISO 100

More awesome light. The garden was just magical yesterday. I love the flares you get shooting into the light. I could tell I was getting a sun flare but didn't realize it was colored until I saw it on my computer!

f/8, 1/125, ISO 100

f/8, 1/125, ISO 100

Have a fabulous friday and check out what everyone else has found/discovered this week at Kim's.

Coneflower Love

These babies have ravished my heart. 

The common pink coneflower I planted last year didn't survive the winter. There are a few volunteers out there but I think they may all be yellow. Most are still quite small. The rabbits seem to enjoy them more than is allowed. 

I bought a few new ones this summer. They were all shades of coral and orange when they were planted. So far this color is all that's blooming.

I dusted off my Lens Baby (Composer Pro with Double Glass Optic, 4 aperture) and tried out a few new presets for Lightroom.

Lightroom Presets Summer Collection- Summer 2

Lightroom Presets Summer Collection- Summer 10 with additional adjustments. 

This one is my most favorite, at least for today.

I didn't care that this ended up out of focus. I really like it this way. 

Rad Lab Replichrome Sample Pack Tweaks, Curve:: Fade+++ This is a free 'try me' part of Rad Lab's  Lightroom Film Presets. This is the first time I've played with it. Not sure that I'll spend the money, we'll see.

Matt Kloskowski's preset  Twilight (Strong) Another freebie.

Rad Lab ReplichromeII Sample Pack Films, E100G Calibrated+

Absolutely no edits! When I went to look up my info on this one I couldn't believe I had not done ANY edits. (Makes me want to go back and play.)

I used several fonts in my word art, (Yes, I broke the rule of no more than 2 or three max.)

Merged them to one layer.

Added a mask, added a gradient to the mask from the bottom so BLUR would fade out.

Duplicated my layer and applied the mask. 

Added a slight vertical motion blur. 

Added a new mask to it. 

Selectively brushed away and added back on the mask of both text layers.

Added a texture to my type layer set on multiply.

Do you feel like you get lost in the blur? 

I often do.

Every time I turn around, it's Friday again. 

Better than Monday right?

Texture Tuesday June 3

It's Texture Tuesday over at Kim's blog today. The theme is …. Nature!

Come on over and check out what everyone's been texturing.

My poppies are blooming in all their glory. I took my lens baby out to see what I could do.

kk_100 Multipy and an old film frame by 2lilOwls.

The daisies are particularly fond of posing for the lensbaby.

This was a bit interesting.

This was shot with the soft focus optic.

I have made some interesting discoveries this week about red flowers and Lightroom. I'll try to post about that later this week.

There is a learning curve with the Lensbaby but I am determined to conquer it.

Friday Finds May 23

I found the most gorgeous (sofa-type) table this week. But alas, I can't find an excuse to buy it. It won't fit anywhere but on my patio (where I really want it). But I know hubby would have a fit because now the chairs I just bought would loose their spot. What's a girl to do? I looked around at work and there may be a spot.... Or I could replace the sofa table in the living room with this one. It doesn't match anything in there, that's for sure. It's grey weathered wood. Just perfect for shooting still life on. I need to look harder at that patio arrangement....
In the mean time the poppies have spring forth from the garden! They volunteered among the volunteer daisies. Love the combination for a little lensbaby shoot.

Daisies seem to be great subjects for the lenbaby.

And this is my to die for orange coneflower. I still haven't got it in the ground and now that it's finally raining it may be a few more days.

Since this has turned into a lens baby post… here's a few more. Macro attached.

Have a great holiday weekend! We will be rejoicing in the rain. If it keeps up it will break this 3 year drought.

Linking up with kim at Friday Finds.