by Anita | Sep 15, 2015 | Blog, Flowers
I had a delightful lunch with Kristi Cromwell at Tower Hill Botanic Garden last week, and we had a wonderful time strolling through the gardens. They have beautiful cannas planted in pots throughout the garden, and this this beauty really caught my eye. She was bold and sassy, and I really wanted to do her justice. But I was shooting with my point and shoot camera that day, so when I looked at the image at home, all I saw was the distracting background.
Fortunately, I love playing with filters almost as much as I love shooting, so I brought the sassy gal into Photoshop where I used several presets from Totally Rad’s RadLab plus a duplicated layer set to “multiply” to get the look I wanted. Bye-bye background, and hello gorgeous!
by Anita | Sep 12, 2015 | Blog, Flowers
It was over 3 weeks ago that we enjoyed what we thought was the last Pink Apricot Serenade daylily – the queen of our garden. Yet a little over a week ago a new bud began to form, and we knew we were in for one more treat. Each day it got a little bigger, and we thought it would bloom this past Thursday, although we hoped it wouldn’t since the forecast was for heavy rain. And she held out for one more day, blooming gloriously on September 11th, a beacon of hope on this most solemn of days.
by Anita | Aug 31, 2015 | Blog
This glorious black-eyed susan, joyously pirouetting on a most perfect summer’s evening, was one of the highlights of our recent visit to the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens in Boothbay, Maine. The gardens usually close at 6:00 in the summer, but this was a member evening so we had the pleasure of shooting in the magical evening light until 7:30.
We’d been looking forward to this evening all month, so we were a bit dismayed when raindrops started to fall as soon as we arrived. But the shower passed quickly and the rest of the evening was just, well, picture-perfect!
I processed this graceful dancer in PS with RadLab (customized setting) and a touch of Topaz Detail, then added layers of Ovid Banished (Flypaper Textures) and Jai Johnson’s Touch of Autumn canvas texture.
by Anita | Aug 26, 2015 | Blog, Flowers
Coneflowers are one of my favorite flowers, and I always enjoy spending time among them in our garden. As with all flowers, each one has its own personality, and this one really caught my eye. She seems to be looking up at the sky with a sense of joy I could feel as well as see. And I love the soft glow effect from the Lensbaby Velvet 56.
I wasn’t familiar with the Gerald De Nerval quote, but once I found it I knew i was the perfect complement to my lovely coneflower.
Processed with On1 Perfect Effects 9, customized preset from Nicole S. Young’s Portland Matte presets, and added Lemoncello from Flypaper Textures and Light it Up #19 From 2 Li’l Owls.
by Anita | Aug 23, 2015 | Blog, Insects
I don’t do a lot of insect photography, mainly because they move quickly and I move slowly, but this dragonfly kindly stayed around for me to shoot for almost 5 minutes, around 6:15 p.m. a little over a week ago. He was perched on the lovely begonia plant in our backyard, giving me a lovely backdrop for his portrait.
There wasn’t much light in that part of the yard, so even with ISO 2000 I had to shoot at f / 5.0. Not surprisingly, I didn’t get much in focus, but at least in this shot his eyes are pretty sharp. Not as sharp as I would like, of course, but I’m happy to have gotten at least one decent shot.
Since Casablanca is one of our favorite movies (we saw it on our first date back in 1972 at the Harvard Square Theater) I couldn’t resist using this quote for my title.
Processed in with basic adjustments and with Brushed Rose from Flypaper Textures, using Adobe Paper Textures.
