Flower Photography – Water Lilies

Taken with Iphone 13 pro max (RAW) at the Chicago Botanic Garden; Adobe Photoshop Elements, Nik Collection

Waterfall – Before and After – Lightroom Mobile

I was looking through some old photographs that I took way back when and decided to see what I could do with some of them before I hit delete. When this photo was taken it was a rainy foggy day in Victoria. Not one of my best! Over time I have tried many different photo editing programs; Luminar, Adobe Photoshop Elements; Photoshop; Lightroom… My favorite is still Lightroom. Recently I have been editing with Lightroom mobile and find that it does a really nice job! Many of the tools you use in Lightroom desktop are available in Lightroom Mobile. It’s a great app for on the run!

Landscape Photography – Reflections

There is something to be said about timing! I was taking my dog for a walk and happened to stumble upon one of the most beautiful water reflections I have seen in quite some time. The lighting and still water reflected the clouds and boat slips magically. This photo was taken with a Samsung cell phone. It would have been perfect timing if I had my Sony camera with me lol!!

Photo Editing – Before & After

It is always a challenge to experiment with artistic tools in photo editing programs. There are so many options within each tool and the final outcome is solely based on personal preference. Thought I would give it try and share the results! On the left is the original photograph taken in Pienza, Italy. It is a charming little town with many different little shops. The one on the right is the edited version. Editing was done using Topaz Studio 2, Nik Collection, and Photoshop Elements 21 to fine tune lighting and sharpening.

Photography-Before & After-Luminar 4 & Topaz Studio 2

Before – f/5.6; ISO-1600; 1/3200 sec; 171mm

This photograph was taken at Arlington Park Racetrack in Arlington Heights, IL. It has been a while since I have used Luminar 4 to process a photo. After using Lightroom and Photoshop for years, it is very hard to switch to a new program. Luminar offers many tools, sky enhancements (as you can see above), and it still allows you to work in layers which is a must for me! Taking it a step further, I brought the image into Topaz Studio 2 to further process. Topaz Studio 2 offers many photo editing tools along with many artistic presets that you can tweak to your liking. Thought I would share my results.

Bird Photography

***Sometimes you just get lucky!***
Canon Rebel T-5; f/5,6; 1/1600; ISO-800

Bird Photography – Chickadee

Canon T3; 250mm; f/9; 1/600 sec; ISO 800

Chickadees are one of my favorite backyard birds. I get many visitors throughout the seasons.

Photography – Garden Fountain – Lensbaby

Bubbles-s We have this fountain that lights up on our patio. So last night around dusk I decided to try my Sol 45 Lensbaby lens on my Sony a6000. So far I have only used it for flower photography. The lens faired pretty well under the light conditions and was able to capture the bubbles while keeping the water streams smooth.

Photography – Abstract Sailboats

Sail Boat Reflections-s f/32; 1/15 sec.; ISO-100; 42mm

This photo was taken in San Francisco down by the pier. The reflections in the water were perfect that day to try some camera movement shots.

Photography – Impressionism – Abstract

Floral Mushroom-s f/5.6; 1/100 sec; ISO-800; 60mm

The Chicago Botanic Gardens offered an abstract photography class so I decided to enroll. Discovered that the best take away from this class was it pushed me to think outside the “box”. The above photo is a flower placed on a tree trunk mushroom ledge. With a little camera movement when the shot was taken, this was the result.