My Love Affair with Roses

Photo Art Friday's eTheme this week is to try something different, something we haven't previously done - a new technique perhaps.

My roses seem to be doing so well even though the nights have been downright cold for Southern Calif.  I played for two days with different textures, filters, blend modes.  I really like this one SOOC.

I do believe the Double Delight is my absoute favorite, hands down.  It has beautiful form (the perfect point that opens magnificently.  It has a luxurious fragrance.  It has incredible variety -- no two blooms are ever quite alike.  Some have more red.  Some are almost white with just a tinge of red on the edges.  And some have quite a bit of yellow when they are first cut.

I love all kinds of flowers and foliage in the garden, but it's really hard to beat roses.  They really add joy to my life!

I love the subtle look of this with French Kiss' 

"Stone Blush" texture and French Kiss' "French Script" brushes.

and then there's

this look with French Kiss' "Stone Blush" and "Purple Prose" textures.  I'm in love with this look.

or maybe

this look with FK's Stone Blush texture and French Script brushes plus Topaz Adjust filters.  Don't they just look delicious?

Then there's this fun look I got by using Topaz Adjust filters. 

Everyday's a special day when I can spend time playing with Photoshop.  I love that I can take the worst images that I would have discarded and make them star quality!

Oh yes, I almost forgot.  I'm taking another class with Marie Otero called "Digital Photo Magic".  The beautiful Double Delight below is from my week 1 projects.

and finally something a little different for Photo Art Friday. I used Kim Klassen's "Canvas Back" texture.

Hope you are planning on checking out the exquisite art work from everyone participating in 

Photo Art Friday.

I'm linking to:

Peace and Love

This week's submission for Texture Tuesday uses Kim's texture "And Then Some"  If you're part of Kim's Test Kitchen, the texture is free to you.  I used it primarily to eliminate the background.  I added a fill layer to match the sky which was very close to this color in the original image. On each layer I created a layer mask and eliminated anything extraneous from the angel and the foreground.  I added a brush from the "Dreamwood - Elbereth de Lioncourt" series.  Finally added the text.  Somewhere in there I used the poster edges filter.  

I know the background blue is pretty wild, but you know how I love drama!

I'm hoping you'll hop over to Kim's blog, take a look at all the artistic submissions and then play along with us.  I mean what else are you doing???

Linking to

See you next week.

Santa Barbara Mission - Photo Art Friday

I was looking in my "stash" for an image to work on and found this photo of main altar in the Santa Barbara Mission.

There were so many beautiful artifacts and art here, my friend and I enjoyed 

an afternoon walking through and seeing everything.

Here's my edit for Photo Art Friday.  Bonnie's Goldust Wonder texture seemed so perfect for this image

We loved this beautiful chandelier

and these artifacts.

The grounds were lovely too

To see more wonderful examples of Photo Art Friday click on the badge below and hop on over.  Better yet why not join in the fun?

See you next week with more.

Bet You Can't Tell.....

Bet you can't tell I'm playing with my new Photoshop plug-in "Topaz Adjust".

I've done a couple edits here just using presets.  For more info on HDR processing you can get a lot of information at these two sites

http://captainkimo.com/enhancing-hdr-images-topaz-adjust and

http://steverichcollectible.blogspot.com/  

I started with this original

and did the first edit

and then this edit which is bizarre and, I think, cool.

Bonnie said this week's Photo Art Friday theme is "sky's the limit" so I'm linking to:

Please click on the badge above and stop by her site for a glass of champagne and a peek at the other entries.  There are some outstanding samples.

Week Three - Finding my Eye

Week Three's Assignment was to pick an item we photograph frequently and do a "photo shoot" -- take 50 photos of the item of interest from all angles.  Then select the best three from these.  Notice what our thoughts and feelings are as we are taking the photos.

So, though I didn't take 50 photos, I did take quite a few of my garden Buddha.  I collect Buddhas, and he is one of my favorites.  I always like taking photos in my garden.  When photographing the Buddha, I always feel a sense of tranquility and peace.  This time was no exception.  I love his hands, his feet, his peaceful expression.  I'm also inspired to live my life more simply. 

While doing the shoot, I did notice that in the beginning I felt a sense of losing track of time - almost a meditative state.  However, as I took more and more shots, I began to get a little anxious that I was overdoing the exercise. I began to lose the joy of the process.   

These photos below are the best of the "shoot". 

I could sit and gaze at him for long periods of time.  He is concrete which I interpret as a metaphor for strength, patience and resilience.  I like that he is not bothered by the moss patina that is covering him.  He simply sits in silence unbothered by anything happening in the world outside.

Swirl Technique for Photo Art Friday

I tried a new fun technique which only takes a couple minutes.  It's somewhat addictive.  For a tutorial go to Steve's blog and follow his easy instructions.

Run your mouse over the image and see the before shot.  Actually I had more of a challenge getting the "mouseover" technique to work than I did making the "swirl".  I watched Kim Klassen's tutorial on the mouseover.  I had done it before on a couple of my photos, but I was never able to do it again.  I would always be in a hurry to get my post up for the challenge and I would just get frustrated.  When I found Kim's tutorial video, I was so excited and thought I would finally get it down.  It did not work! Arghhh!!! Okay, I know HTML is fussy and you absolutely cannot mess with those quotation mark thingies.  I was sure I had everything just so, but no, I did not.  So I started over again and finally it worked, so run your mouse over it 100 times if you wish. I plan to do just that.
Then I decided to tweak this photo a bit more.  The results are below

From top left clockwise

1. Elements of Jupiter texture from PDPA hard light

2. Elements of Jupiter texture color blend

3. Elements of Jupiter texture difference blend

4. Elements of Jupiter plus Bon Jour, ma deuce texture from PDPA pin light blend

Both of these textures were free on Bonnie's website.  Go investigate.  

Here's to a great week!  

I'm linking to:

I Found Some New Resources.....

I have to say I'm excited that I've discovered  a couple new resources.  Some of us in the blogging world are still trying to learn our way around Blogger or other blog formats.  I was cruising through Texture Tuesday entries on Kim's blog.  I found Elaine's blog and was so impressed with her work that I decided to look at the rest of her blog.  Her blog is new and she has spent quite a bit of time on Google to get information on how to do whatever on her blog.  Through her research she found out how to eliminate the shadows on images posted on Blogger.  Depends on the template you are using, but with my template Blogger does use a border/shadow on the images.  I drove myself crazy trying to figure out how to get rid of them.  Elaine had a link to YoBoy who has all kinds of wonderful information and tips for Blogger.  I was able to eliminate those pesky shadows.  I plan to spend more time on his site to see if I can learn a few more things.

Red for Texture Tuesday

When Kim said our theme for this week would be red, I was all over it.  I already had this image of the flashy red amaryllis from last Christmas.  I used a layer of Kim's "Inspired Magic" and a layer of her "February Magic Edges" on screen blend mode.

I know there will be all kinds of beautiful red expressions at Kim's site, so be sure to check it out, or better yet, why don't you submit your own red photo.

Have a great week everyone. 

Linking to:

Photo Art Friday - Abstract Art

This week I had fun using a tutorial that Bonnie of Pixel Dust Photo Art provided on 

her blog.  She gave some tips on working with a photo to turn it into an Abstract art piece.

First, the original

Then the first edit

And now I'm really having fun with blend modes, filters and textures

The final edit.

I used Bonnie's  Abstract Scratches on the first edit

and then her

Abstract Splotches on the final edit.

If you want to have some fun with your post processing, hop on over to

Bonnie's blog and try her tutorial.

Linking to:

A Moment of Rest

The theme for Texture Tuesday this week is Gratitude

Sometimes I get so caught up in what is happening that I need to catch my breath.

This image gives me a feeling of peace and is symbolic to me of a moment of rest.

I've used Kim's Autumn Burst, which has become one of my favorites, and Cream in My Coffee textures here.

Linking to:

Have a delightful week!