Moving Pictures, Pink, and Texture

I was out in the rain Saturday taking photos, and was inspired on the spur of the moment to take my moving picture for Moving Pictures Monday over at georgia b's blog. There is a beautiful pink blossoming tree at the cemetery, and I was trying to get a picture of it through the rainy window, when a couple walked down the path that led to the tree. I was waiting for them to walk out of my view, but then decided they would make a great subject for my moving picture. I just wish I'd thought of it a few frames earlier. This is the tree I was trying to capture, I wanted to see what it would look like if I got a shot of it throught the rainy window.

Here is the couple that inspired my moving picture...the song lyrics, "Walking through the rain with the one I love..." ran through my mind as I was making this : )

(For Elements users, here is a quick tutorial on how to make a moving picture/gif...My Heart Art by Geri...it is a lot of fun, you really should give it a try!)

It's a little shaky, but I wasn't expecting to take it so that's the best I could do.

I couldn't show that lovely tree without showing some close-ups of the beautiful blossoms. The theme over at Texture Tuesday this week is pink, so I figure I'd do a twofer with this post : ) I haven't posted in such a long time.

On this first picture, I used the Kim Klassen textures: Happy Heart, Grunged Up, Redtablet, and Parchment. I also used a Rad Lab stylet, but I can't remember which one :-/

On the two pictures above I used the textures Happy Heart and Grunged Up.

Time to get posting over at...



and

Edit Me 2012 - Week 12

Time to get posting! I'm always running late on the challenges. By the time I get them just right, I run out of time to post. So here is this week's photo challenge from Beth over at Snaps of Our Life. Please take the time to visit her site as she has some wonderful posts celebrating World Down Syndrome Day : )

Here is my Edit:

I was all ready to use some textures on this photo to bring out the lovely bokeh, but once I started playing with it, I realize the photo really didn't need them. So I stuck to basics when I worked on it, and here is what I did.
To achieve this edit, I...
-cloned the leaves at the top to replace the leaves at the bottom. A few branches were cloned out also.
-sharpened and defined using Texas Chicks action.
-cropped smaller to accent the berries and awesome bokeh.
-used the Rad Lab stylet "Prettizer" to bring out the colors.
-it had a bit of noise when I was done with it so I applied a gaussian blur filter and removed the blur over the berries, leaves, and some twigs.


If you love to edit photos, you should check out this group...just click below...



Thanks you for this week's photo challenge Beth!

Mt. Diablo Moving Pictures

I'm getting a headstart on my project for Moving Pictures Monday over at it's just how i see things. Yesterday I went to Mt. Diablo to get my nature fix. I was hoping it would be misty and foggy, but no such luck. There were clouds rolling across the summit of the mountain and it looked pretty cool, so I decided that would be the subject of my moving pictures. First off, I tried to do it handheld, but that wasn't working. Then I decided to rest the camera on the roof of my car, and that helped a lot! A tripod is really needed to get good steady shots. I started out taking photos of the rolling clouds when I was about halfway up the mountain. I was looking up at the summit of Mt. Diablo, which is 3,864 feet (1,178 m).

A view from below.

I converted the pictures to b/w because it would have been a nightmare trying to fix the color and not blow-out the white and gray clouds. The weather was dreary and so were the results of my photos. ;)

When I finally got to the top of the summit I was looking down at the clouds dancing around over the valley, so I decided to get a different view for another moving picture. I went ahead and left it in color for this one, dispite the blow-out issues. : )

A view from the top.

As you can tell, I have the moving picture bug. I couldn't stop at just one, and I'm always scoping out moving pictures no matter where I am. It really is great fun! You should give it a try. It adds a whole new dimension to photography!



I'll be hooking up to...

"Moving Pictures"

I'm excited about the new link-up challenge posted by Georgia B. over at It's just how I see things. Today she shared how to make "moving pictures" or better known as Gifs. I am always up for a new challenge when it comes to photography, but unfortunately I'm not computer savvy. So today, when Georgia B. posted her Photoshop directions, I was a bit lost, as I only have elements and couldn't figure it out for the life of me :( but then I remembered that someone once told me, "Google is your friend." Well I went straight to Google and found out how to make the moving picture/gif in Elements9. Here is the link to the directions that helped me, My Heart Art by Geri.

I was so excited when I learned how, I made two moving pictures with the photos I took yesterday!

I was sitting in my car eating a breakfast sandwich and having coffee when these cats appeared. They were too distracted by the nearby dogs to notice me. The white cat has one blue eye and one yellow eye. They turned out to be a great subject for my first moving picture : )

Here is my second moving picture. I was having some fun with my macro lense yesterday and was practicing with this spent dandelion.

Oh, I know I have a lot of work to do to improve on my moving pictures, but just learning how to do them was the first hurdle, next will be experimenting with different subjects. It is great fun...you should give it a try!

Time to link up to "Moving Pictures Monday."

Edit Me 2012 - Week 10

Wow, this week was a tough edit. It looks fairly simple, but I played around with it for three days to get the photo how I wanted it. To be honest, I'm not sure I'm finished yet, but I made myself quit so I could post before the deadline this evening.
Here is this week's photo challenge, it was provided by Amy Sands from Little Adventures.

Here is my go at the edit.

The main things I did in the edit are below, but to be honest, I got wrapped up in the edit and forgot a lot of the little adjustments I made.
-I used French Kiss textures, Dahlia and Dirt to lighten up the photo.
-Later in the editing I used the French Kiss texture Old Master, and the Shadow House texture Paperbox to add a bit of a vignette around the photo.
-To accentuate the color of the horse, I used the Rad Lab stylets Oh Snap and Antique Light.
-I did a lot of cloning in the background to change the scenery.
-I also did some adjustments with Levels, Brightness, and Saturation in Elements 9
-Finally, I cropped the photo so that there would be less room behind the horse.
All-in-all, it was a fun and challenging edit...just how I like it :)


Thanks for the photo challenge Amy Sands!

Now to get over and post before I run out of time. If you love to edit photos, you should check out the weekly challenges...just click the button below :)



Yay! I am honored to be one of the Top 3 Winners! Thanks Amy!

Texture Tuesday ~ Happy Heart eDition

Well I went out to photograph something that makes my heart happy, so it would match the texture for this week's Texture Tuesday. I found this blossoming tree and it filled my heart with joy! Although it is pretty much spring weather throughout the winter here in California, I still got the feeling that spring is just around the corner as I did when I lived out east in Michigan. By the time I found the tree, the light was pretty harsh, so I plan to go back and this weekend and give it another try. Here are a couple of photos I edited with Kim Klassen's Happy Heart texture.

I also tried it in B/W.

On the color photo I used Happy Heart, but I also used additional Kim Klassen textures: Light Parchment, Yesteryear, Fall In, and Tabletred. I then used the Rad Lab stylet Obvious Glass. I sort of got carried away with the textures while trying to lighten and warm up the background of the photo. As you can see in the photo below, it needed a lot of help!

On the next photo I limited myself to Happy Heart and the two new Grunge textures sent out by Kim this weekend. I really liked the effect they created. I also used two stylets from Rad Lab, Highlight Seperator and Sexy 70s. Rad Lab is my new toy, so I couldn't resist using it also.

and in B/W too...

I really enjoyed using the Happy Heart texture, and think it will make a nice trio with the two new grunge textures. It'll definitely be one of my new favorites : )



Time to post and see what everyone else created with Happy Hearts : )

Edit Me Challenge - Week 9

I really enjoy these challenges, but I always shy away from photos of people that have to be edited. I have never really edited photos of people because I just don't feel I do them justice. I've tried to edit two different challenges with children in them, but shied away from posting them. Well today I am going to take the plunge and do my first edit with a person in it. I couldn't resist this little cutie's face, so I got up the nerve and here are the results...

The before photo was provided by this week's guest judge Stephanie, over at Behind the Camera and Dreaming. She is his mommy also : )

Here is my edit, and my favorite because I think he looks like the Gerber baby:

The blanket, and the backyard background reminded me of photos in my mother's family album, so I went for the faded 50s look using these techniques:
French Kiss textures, Dandelion Fuzz and Dirt in soft light blend mode.
Texas Chicks action, Define and Sharpen.
Rad Lab plugin stylettes, Warm It Up, Montecito, Vanilla Kiss, Black and White.
I was doing a lot of trial and error, so I don't have the exact recipe for the edit, but those are the things I used to achieve this look.

Before I changed the photo to black and white, I saved the color version because I really liked it too. Although I didn't enter these in the challenge, I thought I'd post them as well : )

I couldn't resist adding a vintage frame from The Coffee Shop Blog to go with the edit.

If you enjoy editing photos, you should give this challenge blog a try!