Slush Pile: A Recent Walk

From a recent walk on a lonely beach at low tide.

Fall Flirt

A new fall photo on this fine Friday.

I adore the color in this piece, I really do.  I worked ou it for quite a while to get the background to the correct shades and texture.  This could almost seem like a holiday piece - it flirts with that line between fall and winter.  Look for this piece in my etsy shop soon!  Have a good weekend.

Fall Desktop Wallpaper

I've made a new fall desktop wallpaper for download.  There are multiple sizes available here for download.

You can also still download my Summer Lovin wallpaper from the same folder. 

It already feels like fall is coming to a close here - all too soon!  Hopefully I will be able to capture those last colors of warmth and hearth before it starts to ice over and we go towards winters icy charms.  I do like winter, but the colors of fall are always so much more enticing to the photographer in me.  The leaves that are left on the trees are still pretty and colorful, so I'll drink my coco and enjoy it while I can.

Phase One

One of my favorite blogs to read, Young House Love, had a post up about doing Phase One changes on their new house.  Someone wondered wasn't it a waste of time and money to do little remodeling changes when they could just be saving up for the big redo.

I think about things like this a lot - not just in reference to my house, but also my work.  When I post Works In Progress, it might take a long while before you get to see the end product.  They're like my Phase One projects.  I like them, I can live with them and sometimes they don't need a lot of changes after that.  But I don't know that when I set out to create it.   For some photos it takes me a bit of just living with it and seeing what changes I'd like to make to bump it up.

Think of Works in Progress as a Phase One for my photos.  The changes I make at the outset in Lightroom help build a foundation on which I can make more interesting texture, light, saturation or hue changes.  I use Lightroom to open my photos, so nearly all of my beginning changes take place in there.  Sometimes I do make other adjustments in Photoshop, but it's usually all Lightroom.

Times is a great way to see if the changes you make hold up.  I don't like to open my photos right away after taking them, but give them a day or two.  When I open them, I have some distance from taking them, and can enjoy them again.  I edit as many as I can in a day with Phase One edits,  and take a few into Photoshop for further adjustments.  But some I just wait on and see what inspiration time can being to the next step.

Here's a new finished fall photo that I took about two weeks ago. The colors are brilliant - just what I love about fall.

Slush Pile: Friday Evenings

Still life with books.  If I were to reshoot this, I'd change the angle of the handle on the cup.