Bluebonnets

Traditionally, the third week week of April is peak blooming period for bluebonnets in  Texas. This year, Elena and I had a little free time and decided to visit the Ennis, Texas area renown for bluebonnet wild seeding.

About 9 miles north of Ennis, we started our search based on an Internet lead for Sugar Ridge Rd, known for the fantastic hillsides and fields covered in wildflowers. What an adventure, around every curve and crest of each hill, we found a vista filled with bluebonnets and other wild flowers. Nearly all the traffic encountered on the road was like minded folks, driving slow and enjoying each stop along the road.

The day was perfect in temperature, sunshine and clean fragrant air. As you can see, “photo ops” were plentiful.

Cyanotype

 Cyanotype -  alternative photographic process .

Unlike dark room process, cyanotype images are developed in the sun; the process is simple but rather unpredictable, you have to experiment a lot, and,to me, this is the best part. I really enjoyed my first day of "cyanotyping".

Painting in Photoshop: week 4 and a bonus

Here it is - the end of Painting of Photoshop class.
During week four we used different color mixing brushes,Topaz filters and HDR toning. As a bonus we had a project which combined Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop techniques. The amount of information I got from this class is incredable, and there are so many ways to use it in my projects. That is very exciting.

HDR toning and color mixing brushes.

Dori effect.

Using Topaz Adjust filter.
Image provided by Marie.

Abstract - image from deviant art, background from Marie Otero.

Graffiti fish - combination of Illustrator and Photoshop.
Image provided By Marie.

Bridge at dawn

We have been fascinated with the Margaret Hunt Hill bridge, especially since our recent visit a week ago.  We decided to spend more time exploring the bridge and the area near it. Our thinking is that once the bridge opens, we won’t have the level of access that is available right now.

So at 4:00 AM on Saturday morning the alarm clock sounded.  After I pealed myself off the ceiling, we got about the business of loading the car and were on site by 5:30.  Maybe I should have checked the weather.  The wind felt like it could blow you off the bridge. 

It was really interesting to see the construction progress made in just one week.  Once we had daylight we drove around and found access to the under the bridge and the levee. We saw more great views and new areas in various degrees of renewal.

Here are few more shots, Russ experimenting with HDR and Elena using a faux HDR.

You may see more pictures here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/elka-igolka/sets/72157629094906303/

Classic cars

Elena found this wonderful location that restores and sells classic and customized cars.  We had some time and decided to visit the place to discover the challenges of photographic reflective surfaces such as cars. 

We learned rather quickly that challenges were a bit of an understatement. We ran into hot spots, color casts, reflections of the camera or worse…the photographer.  Detailed pictures revealed dust, paint chips and those damn reflections.  Overview pictures revealed cluttered backgrounds, unflattering juxtapositions, emphasized our location was in landscape bowl. 

Elena truly created lemonade from lemons and I made a gin & tonic. 

Coupe de Ville badge

Really cool pin striping

Heat sink

VW Beetle running light

What happened to “Don’t mess with Texas”?

Photography gone wild with paint and collage

Last weekend, I participated in a Maureen Brouillette workshop. The moment I saw Maureen’s work it was love at first sight!  I saw her techniques as a perfect combination of photographs, collage and paint in a single art piece. That’s why when she announced a workshop I was the first in line to get there.  Whenever painting is involved, I find myself outside my comfort zone so I started this workshop with a degree of trepidation. However, this workshop was a pleasant exception.

We had such pleasant time learning creative details that I never would have envisioned.  Also, seeing such a master at work was worth a thousand “art how-to books.”

The original photo taken in Astoria, OR

The finished piece from the workshop, combining fragments of graffiti from PortlandOR, collage elements and the above image

Close up of a collage part