Birds!

I got to digging around some of my photos that desperately need worked on and found this great sea gull from our visit to California in November 2010.  Santa Cruz boardwalk has an abundance of willing models who love nothing more than posing for the camera.  Processed with textures.

Unlike the Seagull these little siblings come regularly to my birdbath and have some growth yet.  The parents are almost black with blue wing tips and a few spots on the chest.  I have no idea what they are but they are entertaining!  Processed with dry brush.

The Cat

This is actually a watercolor I painted!  Its my very first and I wondered what would happen if I played around with it in a digital way with textures and layers.   Here is my Old World Cat in a grunge sorta way.  I really like it!   For more on its work you can visit my sister blog http://alteredwhimsey.blogspot.com/
and I show you beginning to end.   I think this would print out on watercolor paper and look amazing!  Enjoy!

How Did You Do That!

I get asked all the time how I get the look of texture on my photos and if its a filter I use.  I do use photo shop, but this is not a stand alone filter. Its many layers of texture I apply on top of the original photo.  Top is the finished example, below it is the original photo, and below two of the textures I used.

There are many places to find textures on the Internet, and these two are from skelletalmess at deviant art.
 http://browse.deviantart.com/resources/textures/?order=9
Most are free to download and so fun to collect.  Problem is you end up with SO many its hard to pick and choose a texture so its like playing a game of trial and error.  Try a texture and a linear burn or multiply, an opacity or soft overlay.

Here is what I did to my photo.  Processed the photo into a dreamy appearance then I added on top of it the blue texture and did a linear burn.  Then I added the light colored texture and applied a soft overlay.   I again added that light colored texture and repeated the soft overlay.  It gives you some cool painterly effects and if you do not like the texture and how you applied the opacity or filter then just delete it!

Yeah, I am a finalist again

Hi Sally

Congratulations! You have placed as a finalist in this month's BetterPhoto
Contest! Over 15800 photos were entered into the competition; it is an honor
to have your image selected among the top 778 finalist photos.

Your finalist photo: Sun Glow (#11705602)

This image can be viewed - along with all of the finalist images - at:
http://www.betterphoto.com/gallery/dynoGall2.asp?catID=45888

During the next few days, the judges select the top winning photos. If
your image is selected as a winner, you will be emailed again.

Again, congratulations!

BetterPhoto Customer Support

http://www.betterphoto.com/gallery/gallery.asp?memberID=86733

The funny thing about this turtle is the last time I was a finalist was with a turtle photo also which can be seen in my gallery link above.   I hope that works if you are not a member!

Its To Darn Hot!

Well, words just can not describe the heat and the humidity and how fast this set in over the whole area. The dust even hangs in the air clinging to the heavy atmosphere making everything appear ethereal.  I think I am about ready for winter again!  This is a cool hay cutter in our pasture processed with quite a few textures.

My Territory

Its time to look at my spring photos and see what tickles me.   This shot I almost tossed out as the birds were so busy I could not get  good image but the flower was really sharp.  I decided to work out some texture art with it and add the extra bokah texture since everything was sparkly from the morning dew anyway.   As it turns out, I entered it into a contest and got Editors Pick.  I can never seem to get past this or finalist but it makes me happy that I saved this image and gave it a new perspective.

Under Water Again

Once again we are visiting the Monterey Bay Aquarium and here are anchovies and a shark species.  The little fish swam in tight formation changing direction and darting as a single body, its quite a contrast to the easy moving shark.  This photo was worked over in photo shop with some texture added a bit of noise and dry brush to get rid of some of the flat feel from taking the image through thick glass.   Its also an ATC card!