Summer at the Garden and Art Center No. 2

The Cosmos has become one of my all time favorite flowers. It may have replaced the sunflower as number one on my list. 

It's petals have such defined crisp lines. 

It can be quite stately if you catch it by itself.

And quite dramatic.

It will dress in orange if invited to a party.

I love it's messy chaos which represents freedom and grace to me.

I think the main reason I love these flowers so much is that I can identify with them. From the feelings of messy chaos to the stately elegance. Sounds like a perfect package.

The Plans Begin

I am excited to announce that I was accepted to show my art in the 'Local Color Studio Tour' this year. I finally found the courage to apply. (Thanks in part to a year long art class I've been taking by Sebastian Michaels.) I finally feel focused again and this class has been just what I've needed. Unfortunately the others are taking a back seat for a bit.

I was accepted on my 'digital art' entries so I won't be able to show any of my normal photography. The 'studio' that I will be at is a private home and there will be 6 other artists there. One I know fairly well and a couple I've met before. The nerves are already getting stirred up but I have lots of time to get everything I need lined up and finished.

New business cards, postcards to send to friends as invites, display set ups...

I'm trying my hand at mounting my prints on wood panels and finishing them out with matt medium or possibly encaustic wax. It will be fun to experiment for sure. My first trial is nearly done and so far it's looking good.

This will probably be about 90% mobile art. I hope to have a small display showing the progression of a print so I don't have to try and explain it. A picture is worth thousand words right?

In love with Flowers

I'm in love with flowers. There, I said it. I'm also in love with the deaminess I can get in Lightroom. I used Pretty Presets in these edits. A mixture of several. Their Clean and Creative Workflow is my favorite.

I believe cosmos are the most photogenic of all flowers.

I love the slightly desaturated version of this one.

And the warmth of these as they turn toward the sun.

Pretty Preset also has some great bokeh effects with their Luminous Set. I think I added 2 or 3 to this one.

All shots made using my 100 Macro lens with my Canon. My aperture setting were 4.5 and 5.6 on these shots. 

I've had more fun shooting my flowers this year with this lens.

A Flood of Tulips

My purple tulips I planted last fall gave me far more than I could have asked for. By the end they had turned into peony wanna-bees.
So here is my flood of photos, from just two days of working them over. (I have still life photos that I'll share later.)

Even though they really are purple, I love these pink edits.

Linking up with Kim for Texture Tuesday.

Be Still Week 39

Subject: Glass
I'm not much the pink frilly girly roses type. But when I recently rediscovered these two pink pieces, one at work and the other in my china cabinet, I decided to try and pull something together with them.

kk_gentle was used on the first two. It is one of my favorites.

kk_bare

kk_hazey, gentle and chocolate (starting at the left)

KK_bare on these three.

I had more fun that day. First I played in the dining room on the chair, then took everything into my 'studio'. I thought I was finished after I started pulling out the doilies but then I grabbed some books, ditched the glass and you'll have to wait until later to see those.

Texture Tuesday May 27

It's the free and easy edition today, over at Kim's Texture Tuesday. Something I've been waiting for! So guess what? You are getting more peonies and a text tip.
This first one is textured with kk_0405 and kk_simple2. Layers shot below.

Here's a tip….After you've finished your quote…

1. Merge the text layers together.
2. Make a selection by Command(Control) clicking the thumbnail of that layer.
3. Click on the eyeball to turn off the visibility of the text layer.
4. In the Adjustment panel (or Menu) add a Levels adjustment layer. Your selection will disappear and look like nothing has happened. 
5. Now adjust the levels slider by pulling the left slider to the right to darken and reveal your text.

I posted this yesterday but just had to show it again. I'm trying to work through the Start2Finish class a second time around and make improvements. A collage from the above shoot with my peonies starting to dry up.

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

The Peony Chronicles Day 5

It's time for some close ups.

Did you know, that if you decrease the saturation, especially of red shades, you can bring out the detail in your flowers. Last year I took photos of true red poppies and they looked like a solid circle of red with no detail or depth.
I did over do the de-sat on the following photo but I love the light pink. I've added a brush overlay that matches the background color and set it to overlay and reduced the opacity, so it is very subtle. It was removed from the flower by masking. Now that I see it with the rest, I think I may go back and crank up the vibrance a bit.

 I can't believe it's a holiday coming up! I'm looking forward to a nice restful weekend, how about you?