Texture Tuesday: Celebrate the Season

I wish a very happy holiday season to all.

Texture Tuesday: Free and Easy--Holiday Edition

A little holiday image. This was textured with Kim's 'bamboo' and 'heartfelt'. Happy Holidays to everyone.

Texture Tuesday--to the Lake

This is a heavily textured image that was taken in the evening on Seventh Lake in Inlet, NY.

Texture Tuesday: Free and Easy--Autumn Abstract

Abstracted trees in the autumn woods, processed in Lightroom and Photoshop with 2 layers of of Kim's 'quest' texture.

Friday Finds: Frosty Morning

I 'found' these in my front yard, so I did not search far and wide nor did I find anything particularly new.  This is one of my obsessions--leaves with frost on them. I am glad the weather is getting cold enough for frost. 

Texture Tuesday: Fall on Blue Mountain Lake

I used both of Kim's lovely new textures on this image which was taken in the late afternoon on Blue Mountain Lake in the Adirondacks.

Texture Tuesday - Free and Easy

This is an image from the Adirondacks where I was lucky enough to go a couple of weeks ago. It is from Otter Bay on Raquette Lake--one of my favorite places to photograph.

I added a few layers of Kim's beautiful new 'day' texture.

Beyond Beyond: Autumn Processing

This is the first lesson I have done in Beyond Beyond for a long time. I did not follow Kim Klassen's instructions entirely, nor did I use her presets, (I will download them though) but she inspired me to play more inside the HSL and split toning panels of Lightroom and I also created a preset, which I rarely have done in the past even though I knew how. Then, because I am addicted to RadLab, I did some additional processing with that (and did not save a recipe, even though I know how). This is what I came up with. Perhaps it is a little too much glow, but there is something about it that I like.

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Texture Tuesday: Free and Easy--Adirondacks in the Fall

Textured image of dawn at South Bay, Raquette Lake

Iconic Adirondack scenery: white Adirondack chairs in front of Blue Mountain Lake

I was lucky enough to have an opportunity to go to one of my favorite places in my favorite season--the Adirondacks in the Fall. I went specifically for the photo opportunities with a friend of mine (and fellow shutterbug) who lives in a region of the country where there is not much of a fall. I do live where there is a change of seasons and a pretty nice fall (in Indiana), but the difference is there are not as many lakes (at least not right around every bend as there is in the Adirondacks) and, also, there are no mountains in Indiana.

I am still getting through all my shots from the long weekend. I took a great deal more than I do when I am on a 'regular' vacation with my family. 

Above are two shots that I decided to add Kim's textures to. 

Below are a few more shots that I have edited, but decided to forgo the textures.

It is a lovely time of year in a lovely part of the country. I hope to make this is a yearly tradition!

Morning light over the South Bay of Raquette Lake

Grasses and mist in the morning, Otter Bay, Raquette Lake, NY

Last rays of sun beyond the horizon, the summit of Rocky Mountain near Inlet, NY

Mist rests on bright red autumn foliage, South Bay, Raquette Lake.

Secret Falls aka Death Falls, Raquette Lake, NY

Brilliant autumn leaves on the forest floor, Raquette Lake, NY

Red leaf on rocks in Moose River, Old Forge, NY

Moose River, Old Forge, NY

Black and white of ferns in the forest near Old Forge, NY

Old stump and ferns in the forest near Old Forge, NY

Shutter sisters

Dim morning sun trying to break through the heavy fog, Raquette Lake NY

Buttermilk Falls, on the Raquette River near Long Lake,  NY

Texture Tuesday: Free and Easy

For Texture Tuesday this week, I have two photos--one each of two of my favorite and most common subjects.

Oat grass. I wonder how many photos I have taken of this plant?

 And dandelions, which I find especially lovely when they are covered in morning dew.

Texture Tuesday: August End

An image made with Kim's 'appreciate' texture from her August End duo of textures. Our August end in Indiana has brought the hottest weather we've had this summer. It was not a bad summer overall, but still, I look forward to winter.

Texture Tuesday

 For Kim Klassen's Texture Tuesday, a couple of pictures of black-eyed susans:

Beyond Beyond Day 28

Once again, it has been a long time since I've done any exercises in Kim Klassen's Beyond Beyond class. Day 28 was about tweaking textures to our liking in Camera Raw. I appreciated this exercise because I did not know before that you could do this. The one problem is knowing this trick might lead to way too many textures in my files!

Often I do want to tweak a texture, but I usually end up doing that by clipping other adjustment layers (such as black and white or levels) onto the texture while I am editing the photo that I am applying the texture to. To do this tweaking in Camera Raw is much more convenient and there are many more options.

I used Kim's Frosted texture (upper left) and created three additional versions. There is something different about my copy of Photoshop and Kim's so I could not figure out how to use the crop tool to expand the canvas and add some spacing between the textures, but I decided that was not that important, so I left it alone.

Below is an image I layered with a couple of the textures that were newly created from Kim's original texture. 

Texture Tuesday.. Free and Easy

For Kim's Texture Tuesday. This was edited with Lightroom, Photoshop and Radlab. I used one layer of Kim's texture 'jamal' at soft light, 79% opacity.

Texture Tuesday on Friday

I have not be posting on my blog for a while again. Of course it is not as if I have to, but because Kim's Texture Tuesday link-ups are open until Saturdays now and because summer texture tuesdays are all 'free and easy', I am doing a quick post. Happy Friday!

The above image was texture with a couple of layers of Kim's Aulneau texture from her July collection.

Texture Tuesday: Free and Easy

Summer cone flowers. Textured with a couple of layers of Kim's texture '401' and one layer of 'steelish'.

Texture Tuesday: Free and Easy for the Summer

It has been a while since I have posted anything on my blog or done any of Kim's challenges. I have been completely ignoring Beyond Beyond lately; I have not done any Texture Tuesday link up in weeks. I do not know why. I feel sort of unmotivated and, to be honest, that is eating me up because I have no right to not be motivated right now. I have had some completely amazing and inspiring experiences lately. Last year, I got to go to a Shutter Sisters event (Oasis) and this year, I was so lucky to be chosen (randomly) by the company I work for to go on a 2 week international volunteer trip. I went to Costa Rica just a few weeks ago. I volunteered in a nursing home and I met and connected with some amazing people. Both were wonderful experiences--all around--perfect, shall I say "magical". So now why am I feeling so uninspired? Why am I feeling so stuck? Why am I so unmotivated? Why am I NOT ready to take on the world?

Also, I am not depressed or anything like that. I'm perfectly content and I generally feel good about myself . . . I just lack a certain umpf lately, ya know?  Maybe I am just bored, but why should I be bored?  Or perhaps I am feeling guilty that I cannot hold onto the magic, to the passion after supposedly life altering experiences (which in the moment, they were) . . . life always just comes back to the mundane. Am I expecting too much?  . . . perhaps so.

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I did not take a lot of great pictures in Costa Rica. I wish I had taken more and I wish I had not been so disappointed in the ones I did take, but still, that was not why I was there. Above are two (very similar, I know) images from the beach in a place called Manual Antonio. I textured them with a few of Kim's textures--different blend modes, different opacities--just for fun. I have been adding textures to fewer of my photos these days, but I still love the process of adding textures to photos.