Keys Ranch Water Pump

On April 15, 2017, in California, by admin
Keys Ranch Water Pump, Joshua Tree National Park

Keys Ranch Water Pump (click to enlarge)

Here is another image from Joshua Tree National Park.  The appears to be part of the water pump from a windmill along the trail leading to Keys Ranch at Joshua Tree National Park.

Everything man-made at Joshua Tree has that sunbaked, weathered, and brown look about it.  These items make for good black and white images with strong textures and  contrast.

Keys Ranch, Joshua Tree National Park N 34 02 44.47 W116 10 09.36

Snow Girls

On April 9, 2017, in Garage Photography, Photography Tips, by admin
Snow Girls

Snow Girls (click to enlarge)

After the snow ends, take out your camera before you take out your shovel.  Here is an image I took next to my front door after the snow stopped.

This is a small statue that sits right against the red brick wall of our house.  The red brick wall dominates the original image taking the viewers eyes off the snow and statue.  Because the statue is so close to the brick wall, I could not blur it using aperture.  In Photoshop, I selected the brick wall and used a blur filter to get rid of the brick patterns.  Blurring the red bricks put the emphasis on the statue and not the wall.

I then used Silver Efex Pro from the Google Nik Collection to convert the image to black and white.

Remember, there is always time to shovel snow, so make your camera the priority!

Horse Shoe Bandana

On March 4, 2017, in Montana, Photoshop Tips, by admin

 

Horsehoe Bandana

Horse Shoe Bandana (click to enlarge)

Here is a wall hanging at my friends house in Montana.  Being Montana, the horse shoe motif is rampant everywhere you go.  In the original image the horse shoes are rust colored and hanging on a brown wall.  That setting accentuates the faded red bandana.

In my image I wanted to make the bandana really shine.  I converted the image to black and white, then used a layer mask to expose the original bandana colors.  This gives the viewers eye two images to explore in a single image.  The eye can explore textures, shapes, and patterns in the horse shoes and wall and then focus on the bandana weaving around the horse shoes.

Using layer masks to eliminate or highlight different parts of an image is a common task in Photoshop.  I first learned this technique at the Washington School of Photography which sadly no longer exists.  Fortunately, there are many tutorials on how to do this such as this one.

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