…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.
Waiting to Fish, Capitola pierLife on the Capitola pier 1Life on the Capitola pier 2Corner of CapitolaMystical inlet, Santa CruzCatamaran dreams, Santa CruzSunset in Santa Cruz, Crow’s Nest
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.
Campbell water tower with new moon
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…
Golden Gate Bridge
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.
Yellowstone Falls
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.