I had a lot of fun yesterday reprocessing my old photo of Gibbon Falls in Yellowstone. For tonights picture I decided to go through the same process. This is taken from a single Raw image split into five different images. I then did a mild enhancement with Topaz Adjust, but I used Topaz Denoise to make the photo have an almost painterly look. I did overprocess the image on purpose, but I like the end result. When you get a moment take the time to look at your old photos and re-process them, but this time try to push the edges. You may like what you see. If you don’t there is no harm done.

Thank you for visiting today. If you like what you see please refer this site to your friends.

~wr~

Today I received an invite to a new group on Flicker about Yellowstone. This small new site perked an interest in some past photos I have taken. I went back and found a Raw image of Gibbon Falls. To process this image I used NX2 and made five different exposures all one stop difference. I made a few changes in NX2 and saved them as jpegs. Next I imported these images into Photomatix Pro and played with it until I found some colors I liked. I then took the image into Lightroom and made a few small adjustments. I imported to CS4 to finish the photo by using Topaz Adjust to make the colors pop and Topaz DeNoise to reduce the noise. In both of these programs I over processed on purpose to bring out the color of the cliff and the blues of the water.

I like this photo because for the rich colors.
I like the silky smooth effect of the photo.
I like the details of the rocks and the silky feel of the water.

Thank you for visiting today.

~wr~

Recently I was at a friends photo lab taking pictures of items that will be used for decoration at my daughter’s wedding. When we finished with the centerpieces we started to play around with these rocks. For this shoot we had several different light sources, no flashes. I wanted a shallow depth of field for this shot so that the rocks on the top would be the focal point, and the rocks that are hidden would be slightly out of focus. Even though this is listed as macro I used my 24-70mm lens set at 60mm. This photo is the perfect example of taking photos of common objects. I like the different colors, patterns and sizes present in this photo. To me each rock has much interest. The best part is that this type of shoot doesn’t have to cost much. The rocks were a total of $1 at the local dollar store.

Thank you for visiting today.

~wr~

Today was the first warm day after several days of cold. I took my boy outside and let him play in the sun. While he was doing this I grabbed a few common objects found in our backyard and began shooting some macro shots. This one of the pine cone was my favorite.

The specs:
iso 200
105mm
f/16
1/100 sec

I did very little post processing on this photo.
I like the patterns found in nature.
I like how each layer is a little less in focus.
I like how the patterns and drop off of focus draw the eye to the focal point of the tip of the pine cone.

With the weather starting to warm up I suggest that you get outside and start taking photos. Start with simple common objects found around your home. You never know what you have or how it will look until you look at it from a different perspective.

Thank you for visiting today.

~wr~

I spent all day yesterday working on a photo project for a friend. When it came time to post my blog my two youngest children started throwing up. This went on every fifteen to thirty minutes from seven p.m. to 10:30 p.m. By this time our toddler was not very happy. He was having a hard time going to sleep with all the commotion going on. So needless to say by the time everything had settled down I was too tired to post anything on my web page. Today was a miserably cold grey day. It started out with an inch of snow and a stiff North wind blowing all day. The clouds were grey and without much shape. Just as the sun was about to set the clouds broke and the sun took a quick peek from behind the mountains. This photo was taken at the end of my street. It was hand held and a five exposure HDR. The wild clouds are actually snow. Five minutes after I took this we had a brief but heavy snow squall.

The specs:
Iso 200
24 mm
f/11
5 exposure
Hand held

I processed the photo using Photomatix Pro. I then exported it to Lightroom for some small enhancements in color. From there I exported to Photoshop and completed some dust fixes and some other minor edits. At this point I slightly enhanced the photo using Topaz Adjust and Topaz Denoise 3. The final product has more color then what the natural eye could see.

Today was Easter. This is what we woke up to. There was a pure white blanket of snow. Even though I am ready for winter to be over I have to admit it sure was pretty. There was three inches of snow, and it was attached to everything. The trees looked as pretty as they do in the middle of winter after a cold winter snow storm. I choose this part of the yard because it has lots of color. I like how everything has snow on it, but that the wood provides some color relief from all the white.

Have a great day!

Thanks for visiting today.

~wr~