Week 35 by Robin

Scanning the Beach

A wonderful, fun outing this weekend with perfect weather! I love our time together! I haven't taken many birds in flight at the beach, but many actually came out in good focus with ISO 100! They say the 7D is good for this and it seems to be true! He could have had a fish in his mouth or something. Ha ha! I didn't do much except sharpen and adjust the color. I just set up Photoshop on my new computer tonight and haven't done any of the plug-ins or ran a monitor calibration.

Week 35 by Becky

Dead End!

As Judy mentioned, we had another NWG photo outing. As always, it was a blast. A lot of talking, laughing and photo taking. Life is good. Thanks to Judy for being such a great planner. Without her, I don't think I would be getting out this much. Anyway, we stumbled upon this little guy hanging on the end of a vine. I liked him much better than the many Banana Spiders we came across; especially, the ones that were actually sucking the life out of its prey. Spiders give me the heebie jeebies. Didn't do a lot of processing. Just cropped it, played with the exposure and sharpened.

Week 35 by Judy

Home Sweet Home

The NWG's went on another fun outing today to the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge in Melbourne Beach, FL. We hiked several trails, walked the beach, and visited the Barrier Island Visitor Center. This green-eyed crab was in one of the aquariums at the Visitor Center. I applied a low strength of Topaz's Mild Detail filter and did a little cropping. Another great NWG day!

Week 34 by Robin

Bugsy on a Rug

This weekend went so fast and I didn't have time to get creative, although I tried. Seems I always have a few photos of my dogs on every CF card and this week is no exception. Bugsy really misses me now that I am working again and when I come home he doesn't leave my side. Nothing like playing with your dogs to make you forget about everything else for the moment!

Week 34 by Judy

Mini Mares

Our neighbors own these two cute miniature horses. I think they are especially cute this time of year because they have their wooly winter coats. I applied Topaz's Vintage Grunge I preset filter to give it an old time cowboyish look.

Week 34 by Becky

What the ?

Macro of an Orchid. Converted to B/W. To me, this looks like some kind of bat flying at you. What do you see? Played around with my flash on this one. Didn't do a whole lot of processing in Photoshop, except to brighten the face a bit so it would pop.

Week 33 by Judy

Mandarin Beauty

We went camping in Fort Pierce, FL this weekend. While camping, we visited the nearby St. Lucie County Aquarium. It's a small aquarium, but had some very interesting marine life. This is a Mandarin Dragonet fish. It's such a beautifully colored fish, with such unique markings, I just had to take a photo of it. Did some cropping and applied Topaz Warm filter on it.

Week 33 by Robin

Fogbow

Now that I drive 64 miles one way to work each day, I decided instead of taking the route EVERYONE takes I would drive the country roads every day. I timed both routes and there is very little difference in time or miles, but a world of difference in driving enjoyment. I see many new and wondrous things each day and I love my morning drive! This was taken in the morning during one of the foggy days with my Panasonic P&S. I wasn't sure what this was, so I looked it up and it's a fogbow, I think. Never knew about these!

I used Topaz Adjust to bring it out some.

Week 33 by Becky

Passion

The passion flower is such a strange and beautiful flower. Looks like it is from another planet. This flower is really pretty in color, but I thought it looked neat in black and white. There is a religious story and/or symbolism behind this flower. Found the following on a website:

"Five petals & five sepals are ten apostles, leaving out Judas the betrayer & Peter because he denied knowing Jesus. The purple carolla Bosio reported had seventy-two filaments, the number of thorns in Jesus's crown. The three pistil stigmas are nails. The five stamens are the number of wounds, so that to this day, Catholics in South & Central America call it "The Flower of the Five Wounds." The leaf represents the spear that placed the wound in Jesus's side (that one is a stretch since the leaves are five-lobed, but unlike some other species, this one's individual lobes are at least lance-shaped). The dark spots under the leaves are the 33 pieces of silver paid to Judas. When the flowers are spent after a single day (the time Jesus spent on the cross), the petals do not drop from the vine but re-close over the ovary, & this symbolizes the Hidden Wisdom that constitutes the Mysteries of the Cross, & is like Jesus enclosed in the tomb. "

Week 32 by Becky

Cosmic Glow

Nothing too exciting. Didn't feel like uploading a nature shot or a photo of the test rats. So, I played around with the mirror lock up on my camera and took a close up of my granite counter top that has nice warm creams, browns, yellows and blacks. Ran a couple of Topaz Adjust filters on it to give it a funky look. The filter that gave it the glow in the dark look is the Glow in the Dark filter of Topaz Adjust 5.

Week 32 by Robin

Barbie on a Stick

I found a small Barbie doll and decided to use her head in a creative photo. I lit her from behind and a little in front. I used Topaz B&W and Adjust to change to duo-tone and make other creative adjustments. I always disliked Barbie dolls and all the silly stuff that went with it. My childhood dolls were a sock monkey, a rag doll, a whole bunch of Wishnik Troll dolls and space aliens. What dolls did you play with? :)

Week 32 by Judy

Puzzle Me!

This is part of a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle my husband and I worked on ALL day New Year's Day and he finished it the next day. It's a puzzle I had gotten him for Christmas a couple of years ago, but had never put it together until now. I forgot how addicting jigsaw puzzles could be, but it was fun. It's going to be difficult to take it apart :-). I used a low strength of Topaz's Vintage Grunge I filter.

Week 31 by Robin

December in Florida

As the other NWG's mentioned, this was a Winter Park scenic boat tour. Another perfect day with our little group. It was a beautiful place and we had lots of fun! This was taken from the boat with a 70-200 lens. I got some nice photos on this trip, but this was the first one I processed, so in it goes. I think the Spanish moss is beautiful. I agree with Becky, why would they remove it? :) It's 2012! Happy New Year to all!