Week 9 by Becky

Bale's Cabin (Family of 10)

Went to Gatlinburg, TN to locate where Grotto Falls would be so we could hike to it another day. To get to Grotto Falls we had to take the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail. Along the trail (via automobile) are pull offs to old log cabins. This one belonged to the Bale family. I can see why they picked this spot. It was absolutely beautiful. They must have been very small in stature because my head barely missed the top door frame. I am only 5'6". It's hard to believe ten people lived in this cabin. They must have been really close.

This was shot with my son's Nikon Coolpix S3000. Didn't have my Nikon D300s with me when we went on this exploratory drive. I processed this image using Lesson 12 in the "Scott Kelby's 7-Point System for Adobe Photoshop" book as a guide. Hope I did this cabin justice.

Week 8 by Robin

The last time I tried water drop shots I had a point and shoot. It seemed a lot easier to get the drops in perfect focus with the P&S. Today, with the Canon 7D and the 100 mm f2/8 macro lens, it wasn't easy. I had to focus manually and DOF was a challenge. Anyway... I took this from above. In this capture my warped mind sees a fat woman with her arms encircling an orb of water while she looks at another orb speeding away. Maybe it represents something lost, but something gained. Story of my life (and many others) in a splash of water! :)

Week 8 by Becky

Gold

My son's soccer team was doing some beach clean up. So I took my camera and one of my cokin filters to play around with. This is some of the grass on the beach. You can vaguely make out people in the background. Not to exciting of a photo, but I didn't have much time. I kinda of like the golden look the filter gave the photo. I will have to play with it some more.

Week 8 by Judy

Mother Nature Never Disappoints

Had to shoot flowers again this week, but Mother Nature dictates the schedule, not me. And I’m excited about these flowers! I’ve had this cactus for several years and this is the first year it has bloomed. It only blooms late at night and only for a few hours. My husband and I were up past midnight (a late night for us anymore) taking this photo. He was kind enough to hold up a black cloth for the background. The flowers are just beautiful and have an unusual fragrance. Each flower is about four inches in diameter. This cactus is known by several names; the friend I received the cutting from called it the Christ in the Manger cactus. I edited the photo with Topaz Adjust 4 Dramatic filter to bring out the details.

Week 7 by Robin

I've been trying to get back to my uninhibited, creative side. I lost it a while ago. I always admired photos of oil on water with pretty light and colors so I thought I'd give it a try. I tried for a few days to get something I liked. The first tries were pathetic and out of focus. I finally got some shots tonight that were closer to what I imagined.

Week 7 by Becky

Self Portrait - July 14, 2011

This photo was taking for my personal Project 50, where I take a self portrait on the 14th day of each month until I turn 50. This is my 3rd self portrait. I have always loved photography. I love looking at photos and I love taking photos. I love messing with photos in Photoshop. I enjoy turning our vacation photos into photo books. I am all about memories and catching the moment. My first SLR was a Nikon. I have had other brands over the years, but finally went back to my old love and bought my Nikon DSLR last year. I love it.

Week 7 by Judy

The Pollinator

Caught this bee coming in for another load of pollen, but I don't know how he could carry much more! His target is a Peruvian Apple Cactus flower. It only blooms for one night. Then the blossoms fall off and a red skinned fruit, about the size of a small apple, begins to form and in about two weeks it ripens. I had some of the fruit for breakfast this morning. It is hard to describe the taste, but it's good. I took this photo at 7:36am and by 8:15am the blossom was closed up.

Week 6 by Judy

Googly Eyes

This was a project called "Break Out of the Box" in the latest Photoshop Elements magazine. It's supposed to give a 3D effect. Of course, it took a lot more time to do than I thought it would, but it was a fun learning experience. I was more interested in the doing the project, than the subject matter for the photo, but I like it. It's a clay turtle I received as a gift several years ago, but I know it was purchased at a local art show.

Week 6 by Robin

From Becky's lovely image...to my photo of a this hideous creature, the common house fly. Beauty and the beast! Ha ha! I was outside with my macro lens looking for something cool to photograph with my external flash, but all my photos were terrible. So... I saw this housefly on the window sill and he became my model. I used my flash off the camera and set my camera's flash to flash with the external for the first time. It worked! No wires! I diffused the light some. The colors were quite nice for such a revolting creature! :)

-----------UPDATE------------

This photo won a first place prize of $60.00 at JPGMAG "JPG Shootout" " What's Buggin' You? " I didn't quite believe it at first, but it was true. Then...I got paid for the winning photo! Yay! What a wonderful feeling THAT is! Joy! :D

Week 6 by Becky

COWGIRL

Arrggh, I hate when I don't check my ISO. This photograph was shot with the ISO set to 2000. So it has more noise in it than I wanted. I still like the photo; I just hate that my ISO was set so high. I normally like to shoot around 200. Oh well, live and learn. Anyway, this was good practice for processing a photo with a lot of noise. This is my daughter who graciously posed for me for this week's blog. Normally, she isn't an easy model because she gets frustrated that I take so long to get a shot and I keep saying pose one more time. I am always wanting to get better at taking portrait shots so I thought no better time than now. Shot using available window light. Opened in Photoshop and messed around to achieve this trendy high contrast look. I followed Scott Kelby's photo tips on achieving this. Also played around with skin softening techniques. Not that she needed it, but it is nice how it came out.

Week 5 by Robin

Darn! I was hoping to not be last again! But, I usually edit photos at night while watching TV. Anyhooo...I didn't have anything great so I combined two photos I took this morning and edited them with an overlay. This is the same bird. She is a brave one and the first one at the bird feeder when I put the seeds out in the morning.

Week 5 by Becky

TRAPPED

I bought this large crystal ball a few years ago for the sole purpose of being one of my photographic props. Saw it sitting there on my shelf and I figured it was about time it was used. I have always liked what I see when looking through a crystal ball or even a clear marble. I figured I could have fun with this and also do a self portrait. So, here I am acting like I am trapped in this crystal ball. Took me three days to come up with one that I kind of liked. I had a lot of fun doing this. Getting the lighting and the shocked/scared look was a bit humorous.

Week 5 by Judy

We spent a couple of days at Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort for the holiday weekend. This is a photo of some of the buildings at the resort with storm clouds approaching. I liked the colors of the buildings and the decorative woodwork. I did a little editing with Topaz (mild detail). Happy 4th of July!!