After the Rain
There’s something about walking through Central Park after a rain storm that’s both calming and mysterious.
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Beware of the Dog
Every so often I get this boost of creativity and feel inspired to do something different, even a little outrageous with one of my images. This was the case with this image that I captured when we arrived at San Quirico D’Orcia in Tuscany
RAW file
This is the image straight out of the camera. I haven’t done a thing to it. What I love about this scene is the layer upon layer of the buildings and how the converge. As I stared at it on my computer screen I wondered what it would look like if the buildings were slanted and those stone walls started to squeeze together. I used the “pinch” artistic filter in Photoshop, at about 55%, to bring the stone walls in and the back buildings forward forcing the centre door to inch closer. That looked pretty cool but I still wanted to make it a bit more ominous looking. I had a black and white image of a dark and cloudy sky and used that as a texture overlay using the blending mode “multiply” at 100% opacity. I then used a layer mask to bring back some of the detail in the walls and selectively lighten certain areas.
As you can see from the original image Fido was nowhere to be seen. He is from that village. I captured him only moments earlier standing on one of those high walls. I used the Quick Selection tool to select only him from the image he was in, created a new layer from the selection and then dropped him into this image. And there you have it…Beware of the Dog!
I don’t do these often but its fun experimenting. I would love to know what you think.
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Rolling Hills of Tuscany
The beauty of Tuscany never ceases to amaze me. As you drive through Tuscany these scenes are all around you forcing you to pull over and just marvel at its beauty.
I entered this image in my clubs Print Competition and I found out last week that it came in second. I’m very proud that it was recognized but I have to say it was one point less then the winning image so I was a little disappointed.
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Tuscan Hillside
After spending 3 days in Cinque Terre we headed to Tuscany where we were going to explore the Tuscan country side for the next 3 days. I was sad to leave the beauty of Cinque Terre but the wonderful thing about Italy is that beauty can be found in every corner of this country.
We based ourselves just outside of Montepulciano (more on where we stayed in a future post) in the province of Siena in Southern Tuscany. Driving from town to town one is graced with scenes such as this. It’s a good thing my husband was driving as I would have had a hard time keeping my eyes on the road.
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Vintage Mission
Happy Monday! I hope you had a wonderful weekend. Here’s another view of the grounds at the Carmel Mission. This is the path that leads by the side of the mission through the graveyard to the main courtyard. I used a texture overlay (by Joel Olives ) to give the image the look of a painted canvas which I thought suited the scene. Let me know what you think.
I posted another ‘Mission’ image on my Facebook page over the weekend. You can click here to see it. While you’re there consider giving my page a “like” as I will occasionally post images there that aren’t on my blog.
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Sunday in the Park
I hope everyone had an excellent weekend. Before we get to today’s image I wanted to share with you a sale I just found out about. I’m sure many of you are familiar with Trey Ratcliff’s Stuck in Customs site. If you’re not you should head over there and check out Trey’s work. The Stuck in Customs store is having a Father’s Day sale. All items in the store including photography tutorials and tools are 25% off until Sunday June 16th.
A stroll through Boston Common yields many beautiful scenes but the serenity of this one just spoke volumes to me.
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