Oh Boy - Koi !

A few days ago, my good friend Dolores and I did a bit of "gal-liv-antin"(my husband's pun) around town.  We seemed to close down everywhere we went, getting to places late and rushing through.  Sometimes fun things can happen at the last minute though, can't they?  We had fifteen minutes to peruse one of our favorite plant nurseries  before they closed, and I had a camera with me.  Dolores had her eyes set on some beautiful geraniums, and I headed straight for the Koi pond.  These fish make me smile.  They're like little water-doggies with scales, coming up to greet you, begging for treats.  Sweet and full of character.  Photo opportunities don't get much easier. 

It was evening and the light was getting a bit low.  As a result, the original photographs weren't that great.  You can guess what comes next... creative play with Photoshop Elements software!

Below is the original photograph of the above piece, before digital altering:

You can see what I mean - the photos were milky and uninteresting, except for the subject matter of course.  The first thing I did with all of the photos was to use the Auto Smart Fix tool - this cleared up the milkiness rather like using a polarizing filter.  Then started playing with the Enhance-Adjust Lighting features,adjusting highlights/shadows and brightness/contrast.  Also did some creative cropping and / or horizontal rotation.  After that, Filter-Artistic-Dry Brush, playing with the numbers for Brush Size, Brush Detail and Texture. 

Turns out there is a lot you can accomplish with Photoshop Elements without having to do any layering, masking, erasing, coloring, etc.  I did use the clone tool to remove weird-looking objects at the end of the digital alterations; sometimes bubbles or floating pine needles left a bright white spot that took away from the final piece.

Here's another alteration of the above photo:

And just for fun, here's a vintage version - very easy with the Filter-Adjustments-Photo Filter- using various strengths of different warming filters.  (Another way of saying I don't remember which warming filter I finally used or how strong it was.)  I was going for a faded, vintage postcard feel:

Following are three more examples of original photos and altered versions.  (Don't overlook your "busy-looking" photos... the last two photos here seemed to have a bit too much going on, but by isolating a few fish at a time the images were usable.)

MudBay Bird House

 MudBay Bird House Badge

 
I've started a new blog called MudBay Bird House as a way to share my home bird photographs with other artists.  I have hundreds of bird photos to share and will be posting many of them during the next few months. 

The photos are not meant to be artistic in themselves, but it's my hope you will find them a handy reference for your quilts, collages and mixed-media projects.

This is a blog for those of us who need or prefer a bit of help in the drawing department...  I've tried to capture various poses of my feathered friends since I always seem to wish I had a slightly different angle of them for this-or-that, but just can't seem to wrap my brain around how to draw the changes.  I hope you find these images fun and useful - thanks for stopping by!

 

 

Daily Double

 SO excited today - the Osprey finally came within 100 feet of the dock!  I heard them calling this afternoon and went down to the water in hopes of getting a few pictures.  One flew on by to our neighboring point, while the other sat across the bay, calling every few minutes to keep tabs on its partner.

 The opposite shore is too far away for the 200mm camera lens to capture much detail, although that embankment does make for some spectacular binocular viewing.  To my delight, the osprey decided to check out our side of the bay for a change, perhaps out of curiosity and the noise of the camera shutter, or perhaps from being harassed by the kingfishers.  After a short, uneventful fishing expedition, it alighted in our neighbor's tree.

 I realized after about 20 minutes of contorting my body to keep the camera steady on the rail (keeping the camera body braced squarely while looking sharply upward took some doing, let me tell you)  that some canoers were watching with some amusement from the opposite shore.  All I can say is, when an osprey lands near you, sacrifices in poise must be made!  And there is no dignified way to inform people a few hundred feet away, "I have a camera." (Like that would explain everything.)

 This was a busy day for the Kingfishers across the bay as well.  Both parents have been constantly scouting food, chattering so loudly that they can be heard several hundred feet away.  Each time they enter their nest hole in the embankment, it sparks quite a racket!  I hope to get across the bay soon with the camera in hopes of catching them close up. This is the clearest picture I have of them to date, not for lack of trying.  They flew by several times today, and I just held my breath, kept the auto-focus on, and panned with them.  They are seriously fast flyers!  It's quite a treat to watch them with binoculars this time of year - one parent always guards the nest from a nearby tree entanglement and harshly reprimands anyone that gets within a close proximity.  Both adults dive-bombed the perched osprey, which worked to my advantage today, unsettling it from it's far-off tree.  Life is Good!

Thanks for visiting today!