Fauxtumn Leaves

 Always time to play.  I'm sitting in the studio for the sixth day in a row.  It's starting to get to me and affect my mood.  But there's just too much dang wind to go out and play.  It's gusting over 60 knots, and after ten minutes it's unpleasant and boring.  So, I'm playing inside instead.  The new release of Photoshop contains some interesting painting tools.  I processed these photos through my normal parameters, then started pressing buttons and pushing sliders until I got this result.  It's a bit garish, I realize that, but my toolbox just got a little bigger and now when I head out to photograph, I may be shooting certain subjects to utilize this technique.  The photo below is the result of a new masking technique I discovered that allowed precise selection of background and foreground.  This seems to get closer to my desired effect.

As a finishing step I added a canvas texture to these images.  Knowing they were destined for the blog I thought the texture would aid the viewer's perception of the digital image.  However, if I decide to send an image for printing, it would certainly be printed on canvas and therefore I'd have to remove the texture.  I've done a few of these now and you can expect to see a few more, soonish.

Riverbend, Plate 4

Ideas, like leaves, scattered to the floor

Lay clumped in effluvial eddies.

Swirling away, in a breath of air

Will they walk or do they drown?

A Forest Fall

If you ever get the chance to camp in the center of an Apsen grove, do it.  Even in the height of summer it's a rewarding experience.  If you have trouble finding a good place, remember, "X" marks the spot.

Let Them Go, They Will Return

Walking back the Jeep, I was struck by the beauty of this composition.  The colour was muted by the overcast sky, the air had warmed enough to make me sleepy and I just wanted to lay in the grass listening to the gentle rustle of Autumn.  (it's Monday, who doesn't want to go back to bed)

Last Spin Of The Summer

Spin, spin, great circle!
Ninety-six minutes during the last night of summer as a full moon lights the changing aspens of Veedauwoo.  Smoke from a fire in the expanse of land northwest of this location hangs low and is illuminated by the negligible light pollution of Laramie, WY.

The Cast Removed

This photograph is the same as the one in my earlier post.  But the great yellow glow was just too much, so I corrected this for the little bit of blue sky in the left of the frame.  Not much different, but certainly a more natural balance to the scene.  Artistically, I prefer the other photograph, which is what I was pursuing at the time.  Only in hindsight, did I consider that the yellow from the filter gives a fantastical and sinister quality to the photograph, and a more natural balance might be more alluring to the viewer and therefore, bring the photograph closer to the idea.  Incidentally, all preferences aside, this is the version I submitted to a recent contest, because when it comes down to scrutiny, you can't argue with natural colour.  Hope you enjoy both!

As They Whisper, So They Move

I started down this road while waiting for a couple of noisy folk on quads to leave the area.  In many ways I'm like the wildlife, people come and I go.  Downhill, to be accurate.  Not much was happening photographically, I was at an elevation of 8600 feet without a single cloud in the late afternoon sky.  The fall colour was about a week before the real peak would happen.  There are some beaver ponds in the area that I wanted to scout for the following morning's sunrise shoot.  You'll see those trickle through the blog in the next few days.  So, with all that sun, I had been playing with the blue/yellow varicolour filter, does interesting stuff to the light when all you have is big bright sun.  The colour in this photo is from stacking the filter with a polarizer.  Instant autumnal peak!  At the bottom of the hill was a drained pond and thick mud.  The road took a hard 165 degree turn to avoid the mud, but the photographer did not.  Instead I plodded through to see the area just behind the former dam and found another little pond.  Lots of dead trees sticking up through thick muddy water.  Time to turn around.  Walking back up the hill, I noticed the way these trees leaned and bent over the road.  The autumn glow gave the impression they are playful among themselves, but cautious with outsiders.