The last time I went out on a photo safari I was quite lucky with my insect captures. Not only did I get the snail and the baby grasshopper but I was able to capture this lovely little specimen. I was amazed when I looked at the photo and saw the bright green eyes something I would never otherwise have had a chance to see.
Here is my choice for this week's Texture Tuesday over at Kim Klassen's cafe. I didn't actually do a lot to this photo. I simply added Kim's Golden texture as per this weeks rules and in Elements I changed the blending mode to linear burn and adjusted the opacity to 86%. It may be almost too strong but lately I have been drawn to adding heavier textures to my photos to make them look dramatic and not really realistic, I like how it almost makes the photo look like a painting.
WINNER ANNOUNCEMENT!! Thank you all for your lovely comments on my blog and my photos, I just take photos for relaxation and stress release but it makes it so much more fun when you can share those photos. The winner of the Shutter Sisters book giveaway is Kathy!
Last weekend as I was out wandering through the bushes looking for flowers I almost stepped on this little guy because he was sitting right in the middle of the path. I was interested to see what kind of photos I could get of him with my new macro lens. It was rather difficult as it had rained all the night before and the mosquitoes were all over me but I managed to get a few shots.
I was very happy with how all three of these shots turned out. These are my straight out of the camera shots. I did try cropping them but that seemed to cut off the darker areas that gave the photos depth so I prefer them just as they are. These little green buds are my contribution to Watery Wednesday.
This week's challenge over at Kim Klassen's Cafe is to include one of her textures in a photo using a person. Well I still have a number of photos left to edit from my niece's graduation so I thought one of them would be perfect for this challenge. So here is the photo I chose.
Since yesterday was the six month anniversary of my very first blog post I have decided to it was time for a little giveaway. When I started this blog I didn't even really know what it was going to be about, mostly it was just my ramblings, then I started adding the odd photo to my ramblings and realized that I liked posting and talking about photos and well, the rest is history. Through blogging I have met some amazing people who have since become friends and I have been so inspired by the work I see on other people's blogs. I am also amazed by the kindness and support of the people who spend time reading photography and art blogs, I have never had anything close to a negative comment on any of my posts. I am very apprecitive of the online community of which I have become a part.
But anyway, enough rambling...on to the giveaway. It is a copy of the fantastic book "Expressive Photography" by the Shutter Sisters.
I had it all planned. I was going to announce a giveway last week to celebrate the six month anniversary of my little blog and the draw was supposed to be yesterday which was the actual anniversary date. However, my computer decided not to comply with me and I was so fed up with it that I packed up the tower took it to Future Shop and bought a new computer and had them transfer over all my files. So I was without a computer for almost a week which just about killed me but I did pull through and now I am sitting here typing away on my new computer which I have to say is a dream. After doing some photo editing on this computer I don't know how I even functioned with the old one. So anyway I will be doing my giveway this week. I will announce the details tomorrow and do the draw on Friday.
And now on to some actual photos after a few days delay. Yesterday morning I grabbed my camera and just went for a drive to see what I could find. It was actually a very successful picture taking day. I love my new macro lens, it is great for getting detailed shots of one of my favorite subjects...flowers (I know some of you probably thought railway lines and those are a favorite as well).
This is my entry for this week's edition of Texture Tuesday over at Kim Klassen's Cafe.
Not everyone will like the edit I did on this photo as it is very heavily edited. I have been playing around with trying to create digital art and I happened to create this effect by accident. This photo was taken in the conservatory of the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas.
A couple months ago I bought myself a Holga camera. For anyone who doesn't know what that is they are toy cameras very cheaply manufactured out of China. They are notorious for taking horrible pictures with lots of vignetting and light streaks but they have actually developed almost a cult following. Even Flickr and Facebook have groups dedicated to Holga photography. So I decided to give one a try.
I bought it off ebay and it was just over $20 and shipping was free. It came wrapped up so nicely with a ribbon. I had no idea what to expect, everything is manual and the film doesn't even tell you how far to forward it when you are winding in, I had to count 32 clicks between each photo.
So a couple weeks ago I took in my first role of film. I didn't take a lot of care when shooting the photos because I had absolutely no idea what to expect. I didn't think most of them would even work out. But I have to say I am actually happy with the results and excited to get out and shoot some more. And after many years of digital photography there was something kind of fun about not getting to immediately see my photos and having to wait for them to be developed.
So here for your viewing pleasure are some of the first shots out of my Holga. Nothing exciting but still kind of fun.
I love this photo, this is a straight out of the camera shot.
The photo I prepared for this week's Pixel Perfect "Blog Hop" is from the graduation photo shoot I did with my niece a couple weeks ago. As I said in a blog post earlier this week this was the first portrait session I have done because they intimidate me so much.
I do have to say though I really like the way this one turned out.
Here is the before:
The other morning my husband came around the corner to find me laying on the back patio. At first he thought I had fallen (I am quite clumsy, it isn't impossible for that to happen) but in fact I was laying there because a small weed growing up next to a rock caught my eye. Probably it caught my eye because one of the small petunia blossoms off my planter had blown off in the night and was laying next to it. Even though it was just a rock and a week somehow it seemed like a pretty little vignette to me and I ran off to get my camera to capture it and the little thistle growing up beside it as well.
I think it is every photographer's goal, to catch the beauty in the small things we encounter around us and to me this said "pretty".
