Elements+ add on

Oh what fun it is to play...la la la! An add-on for pse called elements+ from simplephotoshop.com available here which I found thru photokaboom.com makes available a channel mixer in any version of elements. and a bunch of other stuff I haven't played with yet.
In other news, I got 4 Ansel Adams books @ the library today, The Camera, The Negative, The Print and The Eloquent Light.
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Hay Bales and Trees Acrylic Landscape Painting

Hey look, I made a painting from one of my recent photographs taken near the Equestrian Center in Lake California. This is 8" x10" acrylic on multimedia artboard, which I used for the first time and quite like! Fast and fun work using Chroma Interactive Acrylics.

Shasta Daisies in Shingletown

I went to Shingletown with my Sis yesterday and the fields were full of Shasta daisies. Then I found a tutorial on using a displacement map to add a custom border in Photoshop that works in Elements 9. Double the foto fun!

Mama Osprey

Better light this a.m. for capturing flying birds; also a lot of wind made her hover rather than swoop right in. Seems she is bringing a twig for the nest, tho the kids are getting pretty big now. These are the best photos I have gotten so far of osprey.

Using the circular polarizer

I got some practice in with the Hoya circular polarizer on the 18-135 mm lens. With the lens turned 90 degrees from the sun, turn the filter a little bit at a time with your finger until you see a difference in the image in the viewfinder or lcd. yay! it works.

It's a rainy day...

We had a rainy, haily afternoon in Cottonwood. I was so excited to get photos of the rapidly changing weather, including a double rainbow! But, umm, I changed my lens to the 18-135 zoom so I could get some wide angle shots and did not notice that the IS switch was turned to off. And my keys were in the house, my tripod in the truck so I did not use it either; consequently many shots were too blurry. Luckily photography is not my bread and buttah...

Sutter Buttes and Tomatoes

Sutter Buttes from Arbuckle, hazy atmosphere. In the foreground, a field of tomatoes; don't know what the middleground trees are. Shot this on the way home from Davis where I saw my college sophomore son in a play called "Dinner". Life is abundant.

Sunset in orange and purple

Taken from the N campground trail. I used to call this Cottonwood Creek, but I believe it is a part of the Sacto River which splits and rejoins itself.