Journal Page

I spent some time today working on another journal page that came out of  Valerie Sjodin's Embellishing Edges class. Working with Tombow & Zig markers I finished this page. Just a few more pages to complete and I'll be finished.

Old Barns

I've been enjoying learning what my new camera can do over the past week. Yesterday while driving back to the cottage from an outing I stopped the car to take photos of old barns. I just rolled down the window and clicked!

As shot from the camera without touch ups.

After

I did a bit of fiddling about in Photoshop with colour and blending modes to add a bit of drama and try out some the what I have been learning in the Fine Art - Grunge class.

The Eyes Have It

It was raining today, which gave me a perfect excuse to watch some of the video lessons from the Photoshop Artistry- Grunge class. Todays lessons was using light. What do you think of my results?

Bird watching

 One of the joys of being at the cottage is seeing the wild life.  Having a digital zoom on my camera made it possible to take these photos as the birds were quite a distances away.

 I saw a pairs of  Trumpeter swans in the wet lands near the cottage as I was driving back from a shopping trip. I stopped the car and  tried walking through the bush to see if  I could  get close enough to see if there were any babies. I was only wearing sandals and was a bit worried about being bitten by a Massassauga rattlesnake which have make a comeback in our area.  In the same area I also saw several Great Blue Herons and what I believe was a Cormorant. Unfortunately I was unable to get close enough even with using the zoom lens to get a good shot of the Cormorant. Today I did get some photos of Canada Geese right in front of the cottage.

 I have a humming bird feeder outside of the kitchen window and get to see aerial fights on a regular bases between the Humming Birds. They are surprisingly very aggressive towards each other. I would love to get some photos of  the Hummers, but they are shy and don't come near if I'm outside.

Trumpeter Swans

 

 

 



 

Cormorant

 

 

 

 Great Blue Heron

 

 

 Canada Geese

New Camera

After my trip to France and Italy earlier this summer I felt I could not travel again with my Canon Rebel T2i. Not that I'm unhappy with the quality of the photo's, it's the weight of the camera and lens. I did some research and stopped into our local camera store to see what suggestions they had. After looking at some amazing small  cameras like the Fuji M1 I  decided on  the SonyRX100.

It is a "large sensor" pocket camera 20.2 MP with great reviews. The camera arrived yesterday and I've had a chance to try it out, and I must say I'm impressed. Compared to the Canon Rebel it is light weight and can fit into my pocket. It shoots in both JPEG & Raw with fantastic low light sensitivity.

This photo  was taken last night in my garden with out the flash

And this one with the flash

 

 

No flash

With a flash

 



The aperture is F 1.8 to 4.9 and both a digital & optical zoom.

 

 

 

 This little camera comes with all sorts of bells and whistles which I have yet had time to learn but so far I am delighted with what it can do and especially the size and weight.

New Class

I'm taking another on line class called Fine-Art Grunge Compositions, given by Sabastian Michaels.
Kim Klassen recommended the class and I'm into the 2nd of 4 module now and have found it terrific.
Module 1 is mostly  a overview of how  to use Photoshop & Lightroom. Working through the videos in Module 1 (there are over 60 in total for the class) was a refresher course for me and well as picking up some new tips.
I'm now starting Module 2 and completed one of the suggested assignments.
I started with this photo which I found on Deviant Art.

I cut out the background and made my own textured background. I then played with adding texture,  brushwork, and changing the blending modes on several different layers.

And here is the finish page.

 

Gallery Standout

I have been featured on Gallery Standouts today for a layout posted at Oscraps. No matter how many times this has happened I always get a thrill that something I created has been chosen.

Summertime

I've been enjoying cottage life for the past several weeks and keeping away from electronics. It's been for the most part very relaxing. I have had  time to read, knit and generally enjoy a slower pace. Saying all that I have used Photoshop to create a few pages.

I hope everyone else is enjoying the last few weeks of summer.