Waves

I've never been one of those people who constantly yearns for the beach. I'm just as happy with a peaceful spot under a spreading oak tree or the quiet babble of a wee brook.

But I do understand the appeal. And every once in a while, the urge to feel smooth wet sand under your feet and the rush of chilly water past your shins is undeniable.

Though to be honest, I didn't intend for the water to get quite this high on my legs... I carefully watched the waves, stepped forward to just where they were stopping... and then a 'huge' wave came in and my jeans were soaked. Oh well!

Oh, and here is my *slightly* better edit for the Good to Wow challenge. As I said, I loved the original shot, so mostly I just played around with color levels and saturation to get even more pop from the image. I hope you like it!

This is my original image.

Color

I'm sure you noticed that I've been absent for a while.

*chirp chirp*

Ok, fine, maybe not. I promise, I'm not offended- summer is in full swing and I hope everyone has been enjoying the wonderful weather! I know we did when we were on vacation in... California!!

We spent a few days in San Francisco (and I would love to go back and see more of the city), a few in Big Sur and a couple days in Yosemite. So much variety, beauty, wonderful weather and color! I'll post high lights later, but for now I think I'll rejoin the photo meme parade, so sit back and enjoy!

The theme this week for the Good to Wow challenge is bright & colorful, and I think this shot meets that nicely. The filtered light of the Cali coast was perfect for photography, and the variety of growing bits on the coastal hills was breathtaking. I'm honestly going to have to work hard to make this image better- I love it!

Fortunately, the Quotography theme this week is also 'colorful', so I had a lot of options for this one as well!

Yup, Big Sur really agrees with me. Seriously, many more images of this area to come!

First try here!

Texture- even the word sounds interesting. Warm blankets, crunchy grass, all sorts of enjoyable things come to mind. But I've never used textures in PS. Why? Well, it required I figure out how to use them and... I was lazy.

But no more!

Today I used one of Kim Klassen's free textures, and I'm hooked! Such simple things can make a dramatic difference in a shot!

For this edit, I used:

PW Boost at 55%
PW Lovely & Ethereal at 60%
PW Slight Lighten at 100%
Kim Klassen Summer Lovin' at 7% Luminosity

Here is the SOOC:

Early Morning Rambles

I was up really early today, so please forgive me any typos. I haven't fully woken up yet and spell check can only help me so much:).

Long days, warm nights, the sun through the leaves and explosions of color- those things are the heart of summer.

And over at {My} Perspective, this week's Quotography prompt is 'birthdays'. More than 13 years ago my parents got me a pony for my birthday. So much has changed in my life since then, but Copper has remained a constant, fuzzy presence that I can count on to dry my tears, listen to my worries and beg for sugar cubes whenever I see him. Since I have no idea what his birthday is, we celebrate it when we celebrate mine. Thank you for so many lovely years, fat pony, and here is to a dozen more!

Also, H is, of course, for horse.

And Hogwarts (that is a Grffindor scarf, if you couldn't tell).

 

And hot walker.

And lastly, for high up.

Good to Wow: Skies the Limit

Work has been getting me down lately. A lot. Do you guys ever go through weeks like that? Not fun, but it is part of life. But that does make me happy that this week's Good to Wow prompt is 'Skies the Limit'. That is really true.

There is a lot of good in my life- my family, my friends, my pets, my hobbies. I am not my job, and while sometimes it feels that way, I need to remember to step back, smell the roses {well, lilacs really, since roses are not even close to my favorite flower, but I digress} and focus on looking forward... or up!

So, without further ado- my edits of the SOOC shots posted here! Please let me know what you think- I love comments! I'll even pull on my big girl pants and beg for some criticism too- I want to get better! Thanks for stopping by:).

Peace

Sometimes I get so caught up in work, bills, house stuff, everything that I just forget to breathe. Then I forget to smile. Then I lose my joy.

Not good.

So every once in a while I just have to take a few minutes, think about how everything really fits together, run my fingers through some happy animal's fur, and regain peace. Looking for the small beauties of life can make a large difference!

And as long as I don't get too caught up in the details or too invested in making it 'perfect' {whatever that means}, editing my photos can help me find peace too- get lost in the colors, textures and memories of the events!!

I feel like all the shots have possibility, but I'm just not certain they are there yet. I'll take advantage of Jill and Ashley's weekly editing challenge to see if I can make them glow!

Enjoy the fireworks!

We are staying in and won't enjoy the colorful explosions that mark our nation's birth, but I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and that you enjoy the celebration!

Good to Wow: Looking up edits!

For the second half of the Good to Wow link up, I'm sharing the edits I did on these shots. I haven't graduated to advanced photo processing yet, so I mostly just played with color levels and ran a few Pioneer Woman actions (Boost and Lovely & Ethereal are my favorites to play with!), but I LOVE how the edits came out!

Balloons- these were harder to edit than I thought they would be. They were so overblown that it was hard to make the colors really come out. I do love how they turned out so ethereal. The next thing I want to work on is editing out lines (like the power lines in the 2nd picture), but I'm happy with my current results!

Edits:

SOOC:

 

Roommateo: I LOVE how these came out! The colors look so much better and the actions made my roommateo glow!!

SOOC:

So much better!

I know what I think of these edits- what do you think? I'd love to hear some opinions on these edits!!