Autumn Lingers and New Texture

I walked outside today and marveled at this golden chinkapin oak in my front yard. With the nights getting colder and colder, I know this beauty is short-lived so I am going to enjoy it while autumn lingers.

I love the amazing colors of this capture without texture, but I also love the dreaminess the texture adds, symbolizing the fading of autumn. Hover over with your mouse to see without texture.



I processed this image using my latest texture, shown later in this post. I call this one "Dirty Chalkboard". Although the texture itself does somewhat resemble a dirty chalkboard, I think it adds some nice soft brushed edges to photographs. Here I used the screen blend mode at %56.

This image was shared at:





and



Click the texture below to go to the page where you can download the high resolution texture. For a limited time, you can download it for free, using the password "SiennaFreebie". As a bonus, you will also find "Dirty Chalkboard Cool" over there, which you can download using the same password. I hope you like :)

Gratitude

Gratitude is this week's Texture Tuesday Theme, and what better way to wrap up a month of Thanksgiving then reflecting on thoughts of Gratitude.

Be Thankful For...
by Author Unknown

Be thankful that you don't already have everything you desire,
If you did, what would there be to look forward to?

Be thankful when you don't know something
For it gives you the opportunity to learn.

Be thankful for the difficult times.
During those times you grow.

Be thankful for your limitations
Because they give you opportunities for improvement.

Be thankful for each new challenge
Because it will build your strength and character.

Be thankful for your mistakes
They will teach you valuable lessons.

Be thankful when you're tired and weary
Because it means you've made a difference.

It is easy to be thankful for the good things.
A life of rich fulfillment comes to those who are
also thankful for the setbacks.

GRATITUDE can turn a negative into a positive.
Find a way to be thankful for your troubles
and they can become your blessings.

Copyright© InspirationalWordsOfWisdom.com 2007-2011




Here I added 1 layer of kk_MusicLovin, multiply @ 64%; 1 layer of kk_paper2, overlay @ 67%; and I topped it off with a little "Gratitude" script.


Happy Texture Tuesday! :)

Happy Texture Tuesday!

Another Free and Easy Texture Edition over at the Kim Klassen Cafe. This is a macro of an Indian Paintbrush wildflower taken in the springtime, which I processed using Kim's Scripted Autumn and Thursday Textures.



Thank you for visiting! :-)

A Week of Thanksgiving

This week we will be celebrating the American Thanksgiving holiday. It is a time to reflect upon the things we are thankful for and a time to enjoy the company of family. My youngest son will sadly not be spending Thanksgiving with us this year as he is studying abroad on a youth exchange program. I am, however, looking forward to having my 2 oldest sons home for the holiday as well as my in-laws. I am looking forward to the hustle and bustle in the kitchen, lingering over delicious meals while listening to stories of their adventures, as well as our lively Scrabble tournaments. I am thankful for my amazing family!

This image started off little under-exposed, but I loved the leaves and potential it had. I tweaked it using some RadLab filters, and then played around with a couple of new textures I have been working on (and continue to work on), "Sienna Grain" and "Sienna Magic". I liked the bold, almost abstract result the textures added.

I will share these textures with you soon :-)

Happy Sunday!

How to Display your Flickr Photos on Your Blog

I have been using Kim Klassen's wonderful instructions to use the mouse-over technique, but I have been wanting to use my Flickr Photos instead of having to store my pictures on a different account in order to have a URL to use in the mouse-over code. It is not obvious where to grab the URL from your Flickr photo page but I finally figured it out and I wanted to share it with you here in case you've been struggling with the same dilemma.

First Open your picture and select the "Share" pull-down menu above your picture, then select the "Grab the HTML/BBC Code" menu item. Select the "HTML" radial button below the code box, and select the size of the image that will work for your blog. In my example below, I had already uploaded a re-sized image for my blog, so I selected the "Original" size. Once you do this, you can click in the box with the code and copy it.



You can paste this code as-is if you just want to display the picture on your blog. This code will link back to your picture on your Flickr Photostream if the user clicks on your picture.

If you just want to grab the URL link for your Flickr picture, copy the highlighted excerpt from your code as shown below in my example. This is the URL you would use to paste in your mouse-over code.





If you want to get the code to display this picture on your blog without linking back to your Flickr site, copy the highlighted excerpt from your code as shown below in my example:




Finally, I also discovered that Flickr provides a feature where you can create a blog post directly from your Flickr Photo page for some common blog sites. Simply open your Flickr Photo page, select the "Share" pull-down above your picture. Next, select the "More ways to share" pull-down and if your blog icon is in there select it as shown in example below. It will pop up a window where you can create your blog entry.




I hope this helps! Have a great day! :-)

My Go-To Processing Technique

This week's Photo Art Friday theme over at Pixel Dust Photo Art is to share a piece of photo art that has been made using one of your favorite, "go-to" editing/processing techniques. Well, My absolute favorite editing/processing technique is to apply a texture layer and try different blend modes and opacities until I find what works for my picture. I will repeat this process with different textures until I am satisfied with the results. Here I used pdpa_Soft_Echoes texture in saturation blend mode at 43% opacity and pdpa_Feelings texture in overlay blend mode at 58% opacity. Many thanks to Bonnie over at Pixel Dust Photo Art for sharing these textures!

Late Flowers in Autumn

These beautiful flowers were seen at the Zilker Botanical Garden in Austin, Texas. I love this image both with an without texture. My new favorite lens is my Nikon 50mm f/1.8. It took a little getting used to as it is a manual focus lens on my Nikon D60 camera, but I am starting to love the freedom in composing my images using manual focus, and I love the effects of shallow depth of field I can get with this lens.

This week in Kim Klassen Cafe, the theme for Texture Tuesday is to use at least one layer of her new "Phoebe" texture, which I included in this image using a soft light blend mode at 82% opacity. I also used my new Blue Denim Texture, soft light blend mode, 100% opacity. And finally, a couple of tweaks in RadLab to bring out some of the details. You should be able to hover your mouse over the image and off the image to see the before and after effect.





Happy Texture Tuesday!



I also discovered Photo Tip Tuesday, where I will be sharing this work as well:

Denim Love Texture Freebies

I am excited to share with you 4 textures I've been working on with a denim theme. Just click the picture below and it will take you to the page where you can download these high resolution textures. Just use the password "SiennaFreebie". I would love to hear from you if you give them a whirl :-)

Liatris in Monochrome

Some images work so well in black & white or selective color. I particularly love those moody, shadowy, impressionistic works. Here is an example of one such type of work: Girl with an Umbrella by ~ania♥'s. Another Example: Lost in KL by M.A.M08. I would love to figure out how to accomplish the effect.

While not in the coveted impressionistic style, my image below is a field of liatris wildflowers seen in eastern Oklahoma. While I do think the image is beautiful in color, I think I like it even more in B&W. I hope you like!





**Shared in The Weekend in Black and White

Happy Saturday :-)

I had to think outside of my box a bit in editing this image and it is one of my favorites, so I decided to share this in the Simplicity Photography Challange this week, featuring the theme "Favorite".

Ginkgo Abstract

I am stepping out of my box a little on this one. Usually I steer towards floral works with subtle textures. Here I captured a picture of a Ginkgo tree, which I processed in RadLab to bring out the beautiful details of the leaves. Then I used Kim Klassen's "kk_Framed" texture at 68% in Linear Light blend mode. I have never used the Linear Light blend mode before, but in this image, I loved how it gave an abstract appearance. I thought this would be an appropriate work for "Photo Art Friday".






Have a wonderful day! :-)

A Week and a Half Without TV

It had been 11 days since our only TV broke down...11 days without "Dancing With the Stars"...11 days without "The Good Wife" ...11 days without the evening news. When it first happened, I thought it was going to be traumatic not being able to watch my favorite shows until the ordered parts arrived. As it turns out, however, I barely missed it. All of the sudden, I had time to sit over a leisurely dinner and have interesting conversations with my husband. There was time to have that garage sale we'd been talking about for a year. And, there was time to paint that spare bedroom...



...and play around with RadLab :)

The ordered parts arrived today and the TV is once again functional, but I think I am going to be leaving it off a whole lot more.

Have a great evening!

The Number Two

This weeks Texture Tuesday theme at Kim Klassen Cafe is "The Number 2", and here in my submission are 2 lovely red zinnias. Additionally, I used 2 of Kim's fabulous textures. After toning down the saturation a bit, I applied Kim's "Shades of November" and "Serious Magic" textures.









Happy Texture Tuesday! :-)

A Texture Freebie

As promised in my earlier post, I would like to share with you my "Autumn Grunge" texture which I have been working on. It has some interesting edge details, and some autumn colors to warm up your images. I hope you like :-)





If you would like to download the high resolution texture, click HERE. For a limited time, you may download it for free using the password "NovemberFreebie". I would love to hear from you if you use it! :-)

That is all for now. Have a wonderful afternoon!

A New Adventure

Welcome to my Blog and my very first post! I thought it would be fun to personalize my own blog and have a place where I can share some of my thoughts, some of my photography, and some of my textures. As this is all new to me, there will surely be a period of trial and error in getting this thing going, but I am excited to start this new adventure!

For my first post I thought I would share an image I have been working on, and what better subject for this time of year than a pumpkin. I used a couple of textures on this image, Kim Klassen's "And Then Some" texture, and one of my own textures I have been working on. I will soon be sharing that texture as well. If I did this right, you should be able to see the before and after versions by hovering your mouse over the image and off the image (many thanks to Kim Klassen for her tutorial on how to do that). If you have not done so yet, I encourage you to visit her site....a wealth of information and inspiration.

That is all for now. Have a great evening :-)