Inspired (PICS)

As a result of my six month hiatus from OD, I’ve been trying to catch up with some of my faves today.  One in particular, Ahirumoo, whose work I’ve always been impressed with, inspired me to break out my SLR, which I haven’t done in ages, and try out some new photo editing software, Gimp and UFRaw.  I typically use Photoshop to edit my pictures, but I only have it installed on my Mac.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m an Apple fanatic, but my Mac doesn’t have an SD card reader, and my new work laptop does.  Plus, I have a huge monitor and a terabyte drive already hooked up to my Dell that makes it easier to view and store my photos.  But besides all that, she also inspired me to try shooting my photos in RAW format, which I’ve never done.  I had no idea how much more control you have over the final product that way.  Sure, it takes a little bit more time and effort, but it’s totally worth it when you’re happier with the final product.  You would think with me being a computer geek and all that I would magically know these things… but alas, I did not.

Anyway, I spent quite a bit of this afternoon getting absolutely no work done, but instead running back and forth, inside and out, taking photos of things in my yard, then hurrying back inside to see what I could do with my shots.  I’m by no means an expert in photography or photo editing and I may have a different idea of what’s visually appealing from others, but I’m loving how some of my photos came out today.  Oh, and I’ve already picked out my next lens.  If I weren’t leaving on a business trip Monday, I’d have it here that afternoon!  Doh!

I just bought these flower pots and chairs last weekend.  The bright, Mayan inspired designs just give me the warm and fuzzies, and the chairs are made completely from recycled materials.  Win, win!

Same angle, but backed out a bit.  I added a Lomo effect to this one.  Oh, and by the way, that’s my office window to the right.  I get to stare out at these pretty flowers all day long.

This is a bench that I bought last summer, right after we built the deck.  I love how it has weathered and rusted.  This photo is unedited, but I have a couple of other versions that I like as well if not more.

I added a vintage touch to this one by upping the saturation and exposure and adding magenta and sepia tones.

And just for fun, I used a Gimp plug-in called Urban Acid on this one.  Ahirumoo did a review of it on her site iffles.com, and I really liked the effect.  I backed down on the opacity of the effect layer it created a bit, but I dig it.

Unedited photo of some flowers I planted on my back deck last weekend.  I have no idea what kind of flowers they are — the tag just said ‘annuals.’  Gee, that’s descriptive.

Different angle of same flowers, with that Urban Acid technique applied.  I really like the way it made the orange pop in the middle of the flowers.

Some snapdragons that I also planted last weekend.  I used a cross processing type of filter on this, but I backed way down on the cyan overlay it added.

I have no idea what kind of flowers these are, but I love their spiny edges.  I sharpened this photo up a bit, but that’s it.  No crazy effect here.

This is an unedited photo of my new birdbath next to my patio.  Oh, and that’s rosemary and peppers growing behind it.

Here’s that same birdbath (actually a different photo, though), with a similar vintage touch added to it as the photo of the bench above.  Still used magenta and sepia, but in different proportions.

And here’s that same photo but with the cross processing technique used on the snapdragon photo.

This might actually be my favorite of the day.  I added a Lomo style to this one.  I just love this bright, beautiful birdbath, sitting on top of the brown, barren ground.  That’s actually decomposed granite that will soon be covered in black mulch, so I’m glad I was so inspired to get my camera out today!  Oh, and this photo makes me think of Arizona.  I just felt like I should throw that out there.

I have a salon appointment tomorrow afternoon, and I’m seriously considering taking my camera with me now to see what interesting shots I could get.  They are a great group of girls that I’m sure wouldn’t mind being the subject of some photos.  Maybe they won’t think I’m crazy…

Cheers!
Felina