Yellow, yellow, nothing but yellow!

Played with a few of the photos that I took in the arroyo yesterday with my sister Becky, and included an example of the golden colors, without enhancements!

What amazes me is how little "red" there is in the way of autumn colors in Santa Fe, mostly golden yellow and our beautiful blue skies . . .

CottonWood/BlueSkies

whoops, and A LOT of brown!

Santa Fe Arroyo

My sister Melinda called this morning to tell me the apricot tree at Maggie's was glorious.  I went by to take some photographs of the grand old native apricot decked out in gold, a blanket of golden leaves surrounding it . . . will share with you tomorrow.

Thought for the day:  Consistent effort, no matter how small, sparks magic, instills faith, creates abundance, yields clarity, builds courage, and rewrites destinies.

Finally!

The macro lenses that I ordered for my Canon arrived yesterday, and I was so excited! I was out the front door first thing this morning to give it a try, couldn't go too far, pj's aren't for running around the neighborhood in!

I photographed the leaves on my Mexican Primrose, a marigold, a little hollyhock volunteer, nothing very exciting, but I'm excited to have the lenses, and now have to get creative!  

Mexican Primrose/Enhanced

Of course I can't seem to NOT want to enhance my photography (frustrated artist), so I'm posting the original photo below.

Mexican Primrose/In the Raw

I did get out with my sister this afternoon to photograph a beautiful old cottonwood in an arroyo that I spotted the other day;  will maybe post a couple of the photos tomorrow!

First snow fall . . .

Being absolutely nothing like the storm that hit our neighbors further north and in Colorado, I did wake up to a tad bit of snow in the yard this morning, so of course, I ran out with my camera.

The saga of the "last vestiges of summer" continues, with just a "tad bit of snow".

Red Geranium

Petunias

Alyssum and Marigolds

Asparagus Fern and Sweet Potato Vine

My personal "weekly challenge" this week is to learn and use the "burn tool", which I seem to have only used to create a vignette, but hey, practice makes perfect!  Geraniums is only piece that I  used only the the burn tool on; the other photos, I used the burn tool, various filters and overlays for enhancements.

Thought for the day:  Grilled cheese sandwiches JUST TASTE BETTER when cooked in a cast iron skillet!

Journaling . . .

Earlier in the year, I tried my hand at "Art Journaling" aka "Digital Journaling"; a few pieces for my benefit, a few pieces to fit various quotes that I like.  While I enjoyed the exercise, I can't say that I was tremendously pleased with the results - but digital journaling still intrigues me and over the past few days I have kept a couple of pieces that I have been working on open in Elements to work on when inspired to do so, rather than just sitting down to start and finish a piece.

Below are the two pieces I created . . . they may still change, but the great thing about digital art is I have the ability to add, subtract, or delete all together!

Tiptoe

Last Minute

You might also notice I found "shapes" to add to my ongoing love affair with "textures"!

Thought for the day:  When you don't know the answer to a question that keeps playing over and over again in your mind, maybe it's because you're messing with the wrong question.

Nancy Donaldson's "Texture Challenge"

Nancy provided 3 beautiful textures to "have fun with" and I am having fun!   I have done several, but decided to just post only two . . .

The Master

This is image is literally made from whole cloth.  I started with a gold toned background which I then overlayed with Nancy's texture 2a set on color dodge at 40%, then added a brush from a masters' collection and adjusted it to a linear burn at 100%.  The layer over the brush was a light blue background, the blending mode set to darker color at 100%; on top of the blue background I layered 2 textures, (1) texture 2c, linear burn at 100% and (2) texture 2, blending mode on multiply at 50% opacity.  The final 2 brushes were a bokeh brush at 37% opacity and a butterfly brush at 100%.

Below is a fall montage of three photos; field of flowers, pumpkin patch and a single white pumpkin. 

Pumpkin Patch

 Nancy's textures used were texture2 using the blending mode multiply at 32%, texture 2b (inverse) on linear dodge at 100% and texture 2c blended on multiply at 32%.

Whoops, just one more . . . In a comment on my white pumpkin in a field of flowers, Nancy had asked what I thought the photo would look like cropped and masked; in answer, I have taken Pumpkin Patch (above) and given it a try!

Pumpkin Patch II

And the piece she inquired about is below; hopefully I succeeded in answering Nancy's question (I get confused on terminology sometimes) and I do like it . . .

Field of Flowers

October 25, Tuesday Texture

The TT Challenge for this week was Free & Easy x's 2' eDition using a recent image, and processed with any 2 textures created by Kim Klassen:

The photo below was rendered using Kim's texture "ifonly" on screen mode at 32% and "ugglovebandw" on linear burn mode at 100%.

Last Vestiges of Summer

Because I can't seem to stop at one . . . the photo of my niece was taken through an art filter, then enhanced using Kim's texture "fall-in" on overlay mode at 54% and the texture "uggloves sepia", set on multiply at 100%.

Trisha/Summer 2003

This photo of my niece was taken in 2003 when she was about 12 and visiting Santa Fe.  The photo was on film (before I owned a digital), and I was just beginning to play around with digital programs via having the processed film digitized.  It still amazes me how many great photographs I managed to ruin by not knowing about non-destructive editing (i.e. "save as"), and of course, the disk is long gone or long lost!

PS: I have a crush on "ugglovebandw"!

Colors of Fall

Via the encouragement of Joan, a member of the WLDA Group, I am participating in an October "Fall Colors" Challenge hosted by Digital Montage Studio.  The challenge was for a photo of fall colors that could be manipulated in Photoshop.  I had recent photos' of leaves turning on my apricot tree . . . so with a photo, a background, and 3 overlays/textures this is what I posted for the challenge.

Colors of Fall

I have a tendency to get up close and personal with my camera, even though my most favorite lens is a 55-250mm zoom lens!  I have ordered a macro lens kit, which hopefully will be arriving this week.