Happy Friday
Half mast Monday
Have a peaceful week.
Loving the new lens…
…and Sleeklens actions. Okay, this is my favorite, for which I didn’t use any actions. I just cropped this. I’m so happy I can now get all the painted houses in one shot! Hm…it definitely looks better on a wide screen, LOL.
Here are some more shots for you.
Some new images
I have a new wide angle lens that I love, but I put my camera vertically to get the water tower and the image was so crooked I had to crop massively to straighten it, so now it looks like I had a very narrow lens indeed, LOL! Still, I love the image.
I worked on it for a while in Lightroom, then redid the image using the Sleeklens Landscape Adventure actions that Leanne Cole demonstrated on her blog. I don’t remember what I did. I think I went through HDR before I did any actions. I like being able to see the houses and HDR processing allowed that. The homes are so cozy, but I really wish they had their lights on. I guess no one was home yet because it was a week day. Although it was getting late…since the sun sets around 8:30 PM right now, here.
This next one I redid on my own, after watching the Sleeklens action demo but before I bought the package.
Culvert over Tahoe
Here’s the original of the culvert that I showed last week.
This is one I processed with Sleeklens Photoshop actions that I’m really happy with. I think. Let’s see how it looks on the blog…
I find it pretty yummy looking, much better than the original.
Then I played with this one. The sky color is a little purple, but I still kind of like this one.
I feel that the actions are helping me work with images in new ways. They have some freebies for Lightroom that I’m also playing with. I think that my goal as an artist is beauty. I like emotion and meaning too, but I need people or animals in the shots to get that. Maybe I’ll revisit my church in Reno and see what I can do with that with my new tools.
Well, I have to go outside and work on the garden now. My birthday is this week. I saved up two birthdays and Christmases for my new lens. We bought the lens last week because it was on sale. It’s a Sigma 10 – 20 mm. I’m really glad we bought it early because it gave me a chance to go out and practice. Now I know not to tip the camera to portrait on the tripod because I can’t level it that way. I’m really glad to know that because on my birthday we are going to San Francisco for an early dinner followed by a photo shoot. I can’t wait. I want to take pictures of buildings and I’ll probably do some night shots of the Bay Bridge. Oh, I also discovered either big splotches on one side of the lens, the filter, or (hopefully not) the sensor. I think it’s the new lens, so wish me luck on getting that cleaned up. I find it difficult to get rid of the spots even with the spot removal feature of Lightroom.
I’m so regaining my enthusiasm for photography, and that makes me happy.
Have a great week!
Photos from the mountains
Well I don’t know about you, but I didn’t want to get out of bed this morning, with the weight of all the families suffering from this week’s murders, here and abroad, hanging over me. However, I did get out of bed and worked on the garden, which cheered me up. After being informed and figuring out a constructive way forward, it is good to work on beauty.
I also have developed some images from our hike last week. These are from the top of Squaw Valley.
I believe there is hope for positive change in the world, and that’s what I’m focusing on. There is a time of introspection and awareness, and then a positive constructive action will present itself.
May you have a hopeful, peaceful and safe weekend.
A tangle of trees
I took more than 400 photos on our hike at Squaw Valley yesterday, but only had time to process one for you, LOL!
Happy Fourth of July.
San Diego revisited
I saw these photos on my husband’s phone, and I said, “Send those to me now!” Then I teased him about me being down there working my tail off with my tripod and everything (I’m one of the tiny figures under the pier in the first one), and he’s sitting up on the cliff on a bench taking incredible shots with his phone. He said, “I thought, well I’m sitting here, might as well take a few pictures…”
Argh! He takes very few photos, never bothers with a camera, but when he does shoot, the captures are great.
Enjoy, and have a great weekend. For you in the US, have a great Independence Day, and stay safe.
Happy Monday
I hope your week is off to a great start. Here is a sunset I’ve been saving up for you.
Not too much new with me. I’m starting to get some writing in again after taking all of May and a lot of April off. It took a while to get the ball rolling again, but I’m making progress.
Have a great week and if you are so inclined, let me know how you are doing.
A quiet corner of the world
You’ll have to forgive me, I don’t usually get religious, but when I looked closely at this photo, I discovered this beautiful scene. I had decided to work on this photo based on the excellent article in dPS Magazine by the brilliant Leanne Cole.
Her article inspired me to work on some architecture, and so the next obvious question is, do I have something in my collection I can use so I don’t have to go out and shoot something new?
Why yes! And I can remember it because it was in my last post, LOL!
I was fooling around with the perspective thing, you know with the tall modern building behind the short ancient church, playing around with emphasizing the curves in the patio in front, ho hum, so been done, and anyway I decided to — or accidentally, I really don’t remember — magnify the image. A lot. And right there on a bench with the church beaming down on him is this (I believe) homeless man. Wow. I had no idea he was even there! What a dolt! (Me, not him.) LOL! But anyway, once I saw him, I knew what I wanted to do with the image.
Here is the original again. (This was taken with an Android phone.)
Have a peaceful weekend. See you Monday.
Finding micro beauty
The yard is a lot of work. I feel good that I’m contributing a lot more to maintaining it. Right now we are still in the taming phase. Once we get large swaths of land that used to be lawn completely covered by mulch, battling the chaos of weeds will shrink and we can focus more on enjoying the fruits of plantings, staying on top of the remaining trees, shrubs, and hedges, and those areas along the edges that have an alarming number of volunteers…including several palm trees and a holly oak. These turn into giants, so we have to cut those down and probably (sigh) continue to cut them down forever, since they escaped notice long enough to grow deep roots.
It’s a process that feels good to undertake, however. Having a plan and applying the elbow grease to get it done means we don’t have to sell this house and buy one with a concrete yard, which has been looking mighty tempting, LOL.
I feel fortunate that my own yard inspires me to take photos. It has been hard not having photos to share, and I haven’t been out on a shoot, but these artichokes had me whipping out the camera. I took one set of shots in sunlight, and one during the “blue hour.” Which do you prefer?
These were sunlight shots:
These are twilight.
Even though we are living in somber times in many ways, there is still great beauty and joy. I hope you have a peaceful weekend and can enjoy yourself. I look forward to Father’s Day when my little gifties are unveiled and I get to play with babies and my all time favorite pre-schooler. Maybe I’ll take a photo or two as well. I’m always thinking of you…Thanks for looking at my images.
Nicci Carrera 