Scentless Chamomile

These are scentless chamomile and are considered a noxious weed . . . but I think they are pretty. I posted the photo earlier but today I was just playing around in Photoshop and created a scrap page.

Digital Scrap Kit 'Sweet Surprise' by Steph Designs available at E-Scape and Scrap

Lacy leaf.cranberry concoction.ravishing rose

Among other things, I used 'Tall Tale' by Kristy at Life-n-Reflection for these hipsta hoaxes!

Lily of the valley

enchanting, fragrant, exquisite

I went hunting in my favourite little junque store 'One Man's Treasure' and I found these two tiny vases. They are bright green, a  pretty green - but kind of quite overpowering. So, Kim Klassen to the rescue! I used her texture 'not too shabby' on soft light and wow! what a difference. All of a sudden I had this dreamy vignette with my lily-of-the-valley.

On the second photo I applied a photo filter (cyan) to bring it closer to the same exposure as the first photo. Magical stuff don't you think?







Tuesday Around The World at Mamahood, Among Other Things
White Wednesday at Faded Charm

In the garden

'stained linen' from Kim Klassen on overlay
'hopeful' action from Pioneer Woman
vignette added

At this moment

I think my favourite flower is the one that's blooming at this moment . . .






Linking up to Sweet Shot Tuesday at 'Life With My 3 Boybarians'

Caw!

I'm trying to replicate the look of a Hipstamatic shot. I followed a tutorial and I delved into curves - totally don't know what I'm doing in curves!  . . . I'm not sure if it passes the test but I kinda like it. Anyway, I caught this fella on our bird feeder - cawing his head off - yikes! it got annoying!

Grunge border, courtesy: Linda Sattgast at Digital Scrapper.
Texture - Tall Tale - Life-n-Reflection

Spring is bursting out!

I just can't seem to get enough of pussy willows! These have burst open and I love the airy, spidery look they have to them. ahhh spring . . . I picked them because I wanted to create an e-card for an instructor and friend at Digital Scrapper and this is what I came up with. I used Kim Klassen's textures; serendipity, silence, and sweet treat, and I'm sharing this with Texture Tuesdays at Kim Klassen Cafe.



Also with Sweet Shot Tuesdays at Life With My 3 Boybarians.



Sharing this with Photo Feature Friday at A Rosy Note

Texture Tuesday at Kim Klassen Cafe

Well, I am running behind on all my various projects - I feel like I'm just keeping my head above water, but I love it! When you have a passion that will wake you up at 5:00 am because you want to get working on it - you are blessed. I used 'Sweetheart' 'Silence' and 'Luminous' using different blend modes, layer masks, and hue/saturation adjustments. Textures are addictive!

Project 12 - March 2011

My month-in-review for March.

Dream on . . .

Even though it looks like the middle of winter here this morning, I'm dreaming of my flowers in August, sigh . . .

Spring ahead!

Don't forget to move your clocks one hour ahead before going to bed tonight! Daylight savings time starts at 2:00 am Sunday morning.

The fence

Just out and about again looking for inspiration in everyday things. Taking a photo a day really makes you look hard at everything around you. My Art of Photography class has taken a turn - not so much emphasis on camera controls but now on composition. I've really come a long way since this class started. I've used manual mode for the whole month of February and I feel like I know my camera a lot better. Now it's on to the fun stuff!

Winter willow

55mm, f25, 1/60s, ISO100

This is what my February looks like today. It's cold, it's grey and it's breezy, with bits of hard snow falling. Not too easy to get excited about setting up a photograph when your hands are freezing and you know a nice warm vehicle is only steps away . . . But, set it up I did, in manual mode of course, and now I have my photo of the day. I think I'm going to go and make some soup. More on that later.

Late winter beauties

I went out to visit our little country store last week-end and came away with nothing more than this photo. I thought these sunflowers were beautiful. Shot in manual mode and processed a bit in PhotoShop.

One Thousand Visits!

A day of celebration! I've had one thousand visits as of today! Thank you everyone for stopping by. I don't take you for granted and I hope you enjoy what you see when you get here!

Now here's my layout with the proud bird!

Love, before and after

This is from a photo of a sculpture that was on our cruise ship. The background was cluttered with windows, frames, etc., not very inspiring. Through the magic of Photoshop I turned it into . . . what exactly did I turn it into? I'm not sure, but I had fun!

Here's the 'before' photo:

Playing with textures

In the waters off St. Lucia

I saw this ship way off in the distance but by the time she finally got close enough for me to take a photo - her sails were down! A bit of a disappointment but I still thought she was beautiful. I've applied several of my own textures; rust, jacaranda trees, clouds and icy branches. A few different blend modes, a vignette, and done! I could tinker with it all day but you get to the point where it just seems to be right. For a complete tutorial on how to achieve this look, go on over to Digital Scrapper (aka Scrapper's Guide) and check out the June 2010 Premier tutorial - A Touch of Texture by Jan Walker.

Here's the 'before' photo

Here are some of the textures I used

rusty car

jacaranda tree

storm clouds

icy branches

The Art of Photography - Class 1

Fargo Circa 1950 - textures, filters, overlays and blend modes

Last night was the first night of an eight week course in photography that I'm taking at our local college. Our instructor covered a wide range of topics and by 9:30 I wasn't listening anymore . . . well, I was trying but it was starting to sound like mumbo-jumbo. He said we need to concentrate on the five primary components of our camera; aperture, shutter, imaging chip, lens focusing, and lens focal length. I had taken his earlier course on camera essentials so I felt comfortable with all this and I thought it was a good start, but the process is like a tributary, running off into many directions until it gets to where its going. Its amazingly complicated! But I'm very excited. Most of this course is going to be about the artistic side to photography and we have assignments and everything! I feel like a kid! What fun! He wants to see some of our work, good and bad so he can critique it. Among others, I'm going to show him what I think is my number one top photo - my pride and joy - "Fargo, Circa 1950". I want to pick it apart with him, and get him to help me understand just what is so good about it, and perhaps what isn't. The most surprising advice he gave was that he can't really teach us how to make a good photo! There are techniques and guidelines, but you need to develop a feel for it and you do that by studying good photography and art from the masters. That's where you will learn what looks good so that when you are out shooting you will know a good photo when you see one. I thought that was great. Lastly, he is a firm believer in post-processing and he said that by the end of this course if you don't have Photoshop, you will want it, you will have to have it. I'm in heaven!

Project 12 - January 2011

Yes, January isn't over yet but I needed to create a layout as part of my duties as a Creative Team Member at Digital Scrapper. We are having a fun challenge called "Project 12" where we are making a layout that recaps each month. I have the pleasurable duty of being the cheerleader for this project so I needed to get a layout finished and up in the gallery. I didn't have trouble finding photos because I only took about 628 while on our cruise!! I kid you not . . . then I filled in the last four with things that are scheduled for the next two weeks. I spent HOURS creating this but now I'm set for the next eleven months because I'm going to use the same template each month. I have visions of February and Valentine photos dancing in my head . . .
TOOT - this layout has been featured on the Digital Scrapbook Artisan Guild homepage! Take a peek here.