I could be doing something other then playing . . .

but my big plans for the day collapsed due to inclement weather!  

Today's plans were taking photos of the bartlett pears at the Capitol (just turning red), cleaning out my planters, (frost finally did-in the geraniums) and getting my outdoor rug rolled up and put away for the winter!

What I did get done was pull the motor and dump the water in my fountain and retreated to my favorite pass time - playing in Photoshop!

Because today is a gloomy, rainy, snowy day, I choose to play with color, sort of . . . fall colors at least!

Indian Corn

Corn in Dried Husk

Have not really known what to do with the photo below, but it so true of Santa Fe: the pueblo style architecture (although a little more "edgy" then pueblo style), the contrast of blue sky with puffy white clouds, adobe brown, chamisa and green trees.  Rendering turned the adobe brown a little more red, but I liked the contrast, and love the triptychs frame!

Arroyo Chamisa

Thought for the day:  There's not a day that goes by that you can't choose to learn something new!

PS:  The clouds are clearing, the sun is shinning, the snow is melting - time to get on with the rest of my day!

Dia De Los Muertos

Dia De Los Muertos

Dia De Los Muertos came into my life about 10 years ago, and I have been celebrating it ever since.  Love the idea of celebrating the lives of those that have passed before us.

Altar Basics

KK's Texture Tuesday

This weeks TT challenge was to use at least one layer of Kim Klassen's "and then some" texture.

Below is a photo taken looking straight up into a tree with the blue sky as the backdrop; the photo was rendered in Topaz Simplify and has a single layer of "and then some", set on linear burn at 100%.

Blue Sky

The photo below was taken with a macro lens of a well protected marigold in my yard using two of Kim's textures: "and then some" set on linear burn at 100% and "scripted autumn" on overlay at 47%.

Marigold

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 On both photos I pulled the texture away from the edges, and beveled to add the sense of a frame.

Happy Halloween

Enough yellow already, give me red!

My new project today was warming up the yellows' on my photographs taken at Maggie's yesterday; you won't get to compare it with the originals, as I took my project seriously and warmed up four photo's and don't want to bore you lopsided!

 

Coyote Fence

 

Golden Bough

Golden Tree Trunk

Golden Leaves

Autumn red in New Mexico is chili ristras!

Viva Nuevo Mexico

Ristra

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!