Valleyford Special Effects

This morning, while walking around taking images of some wildflowers here in Valleyford, WA (near Spokane), there were some images that just seemed prime for playing with them and some special effects.  Take a look –

This bloom is actually purple, but when I played with it, the colors turned out to be so crazy and neon like, I just loved it.  Such a happy, happy image! 

 

I loved the image of the Queen Anne’s Lace with the shed in the background.  I cut out most of the background and made it blurry.  I then applied a painterly effect that seemed to make the flowers look special……and I’ve always thought they were – maybe it’s about the name!

When I looked up from photographing the flowers, I noticed this scene of the countryside.  I just thought it would make a very cool painting.  Well, I don’t know how to paint, but I can apply a painting effect to my images!  There’s something so peaceful about this – I really like it.

This last image really evoked the farm type countryside around.  The tall grasses in the foreground were the focal point, with the barn in the background.  I decided to go with a crayon type effect because it just seemed to match the casual feel of the image.

Enjoy!

Paintings of a New Mexico Sunrise

These images are from a sunrise about a week ago.  I made them look like oil paintings just to give them a bit of texture. 

 

I just love how a few minutes can create such different colors and patterns in the sky.

 

 

Enjoy!!

Winter Sunset

Yesterday, we had quite a lovely sunset.  I was lucky enough to have noticed it (actually Jeff noticed it first and told me to grab my camera) in time to capture it.  It was all over in the span of about 15-20 minutes.  The first image below is at what I call the beginning of the spectacular part of the sunset.  I love the lines in the sky and how it adds a bit of texture to the color.  Oh, by the way, these were the natural colors - no special effects!

The second image really captures the bands of different colors that were in the sunset, ranging from the almost apricot looking color close to the horizon to the deep blue, almost purple in the upper part of the image.  If you look closely at the image, you can see just a dot of color in the dark section - it's a bit of the sunset reflecting in the window of one of the houses. 

In this next image, I feel like 2 of the best parts of New Mexican sunsets are displayed.  The BIG skies we have here, and the colors of our sunsets (and sunrises, too).  I love the way the different colors are reflecting in the clouds and the bluer background sky, turning even darker toward the right hand side of the image (which is east).

And, finally, here are the last remnants of the sunset.  You can see the rosy glow right along the horizon.  I especially loved the bands of blue/grey as the night is overtaking the sunset.  It seems to be telling us the excitement of the day is over, and it's time to kick back and relax.

Enjoy!

Photo ATCs - Landscape - Sepia

These images are of ATCs that I created from photos, and that I converted to black & white photos and then applied a sepia filter.  The swap these were prepared for required the photos be sepia toned, and be either landscape or architecture images.  Landscape being one of my favorites, I chose that.  The first image, below, is of a juniper tree I took on top of Sandia Crest.  The leaning of the tree is due to the winds that blow up there quite a bit!  I also love the pattern created by the Manzano mountains in the background.

Last spring/summer, we had a terrible wildfire season.  One evening, we had smoke drifting in our area from a wildfire burning a few hours south of us.  This was sunset, and it had a surreal quality to it, due to the smoke in the air.

We do have some wonderful cloud formations here in New Mexico, and the sunrise image, below, captured that.  The sepia tone helped to accent the texture of the clouds in the sky.

The final image, below, was taken as we were driving around the East Mountain area where we live.  As we drove down the back roads, at one point, we were driving parallel to train tracks.  We stopped and I climbed around the fence that was sort of there (it was half down) and up onto the track to get this shot.  

Enjoy!