Simple

Some more shots from my June draft pile. Pretty sure this was homework for Be Still, but I'm not sure.

How about one with a texture by Kim? Pinitonly6 turned to black and white and darkened to be able to 'screen' my photo over it.

It's Texture Tuesday over at Kim's blog today. 

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

Peony Diptych

I've found several blog posts still in draft form so I'll be playing catch up. It's supposed to be August Break, take a break from blogging. But for some reason I feel like I could post everyday. Somehow I've forgotten that this is a bit of a journal, recording what I've created or what I've been pondering. So I'm rethinking this blog and definitely plan to update it a bit so it may look different every time until I settle on something.

This is some homework for Be Still 52. I remember it involved diptych templates which I customized for my purposes. Actually I think the diptych came from the Start to Finish Class. Other than that my memory fails me. I have many dried peonies for future work.

While scrolling through Lightroom to find my edit setting I found tons of peony photos that haven't even been key worded, processed or let alone even looked at. I think the poppies had distracted me. In fact I just saw soooo many goodies there. Perhaps they will be next Friday's Find.

Edited in Lightroom using Pretty Presets Clean and Creative Workflow. A Quick Clean, Vintage Warm, Sharpening and a few other tweaks.

Here's another. I used Kim's preset Dark Day.

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.

Altered, for Sure

My One Little Word for 2013 is 'Altered'. Now I'm trying to remind myself that I thought it would be a really good one, but after today I'll be lucky if I have any hair left on my head.

• First I ordered a long overdue new computer. A nice iMac. I have had a desktop in 4 years but I refused to go from a 17" to a 15" laptop. (old eyes) 
• Of course I ordered and received it last week, the month that I had signed up for 3 classes and as of last night added a fourth. This one could not be turned down.
• I won't even go into the frustration I had trying to get Photoshop and Lightroom working. The 'edit in' PS wouldn't work. I had to keep going back and installing things like Bridge and Camera Raw. Finally trashed the preferences.
• And it's a good thing I can't remember what this mornings problem was.
• One of my classes (CS) started today and one yesterday. The fourth that I signed up for, I managed to watch some of the videos while things were copying. 
• When I finally got everything to work I did some Lightroom editing from Kim's Start to Finish Class. This is my result. I'm happier now and quite hungry. Actually a glass of wine sounds good.

kk_Sybil 

Before texture but after editing