Balloon Race in Forest Park

I revisited some photos from this past summer's balloon race. It's an annual event in St. Louis.  If you get the chance, it's a must see.

Touched

Spent some time at our local Botanical Garden yesterday to get in some of the last few blooms of the season. They are fading fast, but hopefully to be replaced by some fall colors soon.

 

Thought I'd try something new and give a quick tutorial on how to create the effect on this photo.

Touched

 

I use Photoshop CS5 to create all my textured photos.  First I bring my RAW files into Adobe Camera Raw and adjust for exposure, contrast, and sharpness.  Opening the file into Photoshop, I then add my textures.  In the above photo, I added a bokeh layer set to Screen at 78% opacity and then a second texture layer by Distressed Jewel set to Soft Light at 58% opacity.  I then ran an action from Paint the Moon's Photoshop Elements Set, Fresh Wonderland, called Candy Light Pop adjusting layers to desired look.  If you'd like more information on using textures and actions, visit Rita at The Coffeeshop Blog.  She's got awesome tutorials, as well, as lots of freebies. 

 

To download your free bokeh layer, visit here.  I'd love to see what you create, send a photo to Facebook.  While there, please like our page.  Thanks for stopping by.

Adding Bokeh

Spent some time at our local Botanical Garden yesterday to get in some of the last few blooms of the season. They are fading fast, but hopefully to be replaced by some fall colors soon.

Thought I'd try something new and give a quick tutorial on how to create the effect on this photo.

Touched

I use Photoshop CS5 to create all my textured photos. First I bring my RAW files into Adobe Camera Raw and adjust for exposure, contrast, and sharpness. Opening the file into Photoshop, I then add my textures. In the above photo, I added a bokeh layer set to Screen at 78% opacity and then a second texture layer by Distressed Jewel set to Soft Light at 58% opacity. I then ran an action from Paint the Moon's Photoshop Elements Set, Fresh Wonderland, called Candy Light Pop adjusting layers to desired look. If you'd like more information on using textures and actions, visit Rita at The Coffeeshop Blog. She's got awesome tutorials, as well, as lots of freebies.

To download your free bokeh layer, visit here. I'd love to see what you create, send a photo to Facebook. While there, please like our page. Thanks for stopping by.

Orchid Season

The orchid display at the Missori Botanical Garden was gorgeous this year. Here are a few varieties. They are all so beautiful and unique. I've got so many photos, it's really hard to decide what to work on. I hope to add more later.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eagles in Alton

We've been trying for years to hit Alton on a good day for eagle viewing and until today, we haven't been very successful. We'd get there and it would be dreary and foggy and hard to see anything. This morning was perfect...a little chilly at 34 degrees, but so worth it. We probably saw over 20 eagles, some from quite a distance, but several we stood right under them. We were as close as you could get without actually climbing the tree! They were way up there in those trees and even with my 70-200 zoom, they still appear far away. But I thought these came out really good and with quite a bit of detail. Now I'm drooling for a 400 or 500 zoom. Can you imagine??!!

To purchase any of the following photos, please visit:
http://aimeecunninghamphotography.zenfolio.com/p386255306

Winter

I've lived in Illinois for six years now and have never seen the wild turkeys running around our neighborhood and still nothing to this day. However, while visiting family in Ohio, three wild turkeys came up to the house and checked things out. They left after just a minute and came back with the whole flock!! I had to photograph them through the window...so they aren't perfectly clear.

We did not get snow for Christmas, but the snow did come the next day. Just enough to coat everything in white.

Fall Revisited

I didn't seem to have near enough time to get out and enjoy Fall this year. I managed to get a trip out to Forest Park. We've been busy planning a wedding for my oldest, so I haven't had much time for photo editing. Thought I'd go ahead and post a few of the photos from this year's ventures out.

Desert Photography

My husband and I took a trip to Sedona, Arizona a couple weeks ago. Except for the hiking required to get these beautiful shots, I was in heaven! This little valley surrounded by red mountains is one of the most beautiful places in the world. The last day we were there, we woke up to snow covered mountains and big snowflakes out our window.

This photo actually taken over looking Phoenix.

The following photo was created using HDR (High Dynamic Range), which is when you merge 2 or more exposures of the same picture to capture detail that your eye can see but the camera loses during exposure. This one was done with 3 different exposures.

This one also done with 3 exposures.