Lost Aussie on the loose

Food and Friends

Despite the continued rain, 22 days in a row, this weekend has been filled with fun, food and friends - so far.

Last night we met up with a couple of friends and ventured to downtown Charlotte and tried out BLT which was an absolutely stellar experience (and you all know how picky I am when it comes to restaurants!).

Today we "hoofed" off (yeah bad pun, sorry!) across to Harrisburg to visit other friends at their "ranch", I guess you could call it, and enjoyed some country hospitality.  DH did a little hiking whilst I headed off with some four legged friends for a ride through the forrest, wading creeks and rivers and toning down the pace so that the horses did not falter in the heavy mud.

Surprisingly, there is no horse racing or polo hereabouts but, horse riding is very prevalent and since it's something that I enjoy a lot, I think a little exploration of the local amenities is in order!  I could easily get used to some relaxing rides round the lake and through the woods.

Faux Old in Photoshop

It's been a looooong time since I did much with Photoshop other than than using it for photo processing and compositing so tonight I broke out the virtual canvas and the Mixer Brushes and had at it....

... and since my "proper" etching press is still dismantled and in various boxes, I spent the evening tinkering with techniques to recreate a somewhat faux old, etched/litho styled image.

The photo on the left is the SOOC starting point. 

From there I worked various layers in Photoshop using the Mixer Brush tools to develop a more painterly image.
Created some custom brushes to work with the Pattern Stamp tool, added a few doses of texture, various filter effects and a bunch of adjustment layers to get the contrast the way I felt it would be if the image were being inked and etched.

The final tie-in was to create a custom Gradient Map to mimic the bluey/indigo tones that you get when you ink a plate and press (the color is never quite black black) and then another Gradient Map to match the shades of antique paper.

On the whole I am pretty pleased with how it turned out and the "recipe" should work fairly well on most images - so it's been filed in the "book"....

Oh and there was another batch of Jam today ..... this time Pineapple and Mango (with Lime and Ginger) ... very yummy too!  Fortunately, there are only a few more empty jars left ... perhaps one more batch of pickle and then we can call the preserving adventures done for a while!

 

A Wet and Wild July 4th

After a little research, DH and I decided to venture off to the US National Whitewater Center to celebrate 4th of July and take in the local color and watch/photograph the fireworks.

All augured well to start, clear sunny skies and the usual thunderstorms of late, thankfully absent.

The Center showcases a man-made course of Class 1 and 2 white water rapids and I garnered quite a few fun images of the rafters and solo canoeists.

There were live bands, good food and locally brewed beer and the wait for nightfall was by no means tedious.

However with dusk along came the clouds and the sharp crackle of lightening and thunder.  Shortly thereafter, the heavens opened and down came the rain.... Cameras and tripods were hurriedly drawn to shelter and we scooched under the eaves attempting to stay dry - without success I might add.

Out came the trusty iPhone  to record the moment....

Eventually the rain stopped and we dashed back out, cameras and tripods at the ready, only to be thwarted yet again as the rain came back.

Eventually the fireworks started, amidst the pouring rain and us left enjoying the show through a veil of water.

And one barely snaggable shot, which looked like this .... UGH!!

So I might not have got the fireworks shots that I wanted and lost a favourite pair of shoes (as they were totally sodden and trashed getting back throught the mud to the car) .... but it was a pretty fine day regardless.... and I hope your July 4th was full of sparkle and delight!

Out And About In The Carolinas

Inbetween thundery evenings DH and I have been traipsing about the Carolinas this weekend.

We headed back to Dupont State Park to visit Hooker Falls again.  Little did I know that in the Summer time it turns into a watery playground and less of a spot for tranquil photography adventures....

Nevertheless there were a few interesting photo opportunities and the summer frolikers to watch....

Like the kids jumping off Hooker Falls , the ones creeping behind the falls and then the ones careening down "Sliding Rock" at Pisgah ....

 

Then today we snuck off to the Carolina Raptor Center, which is not that far from our house.

There were lots of lovely feathery creatures there to take pictures of ..... the English Barn Owl, and a few more to boot...

The last pic is of a Bald Eagle that was part of the "educational" presentation.

He was a magnificent creature despite the fact that he was securely tethered to the handler's glove... and he seemed to be quite keen to participate in the event and was even taking questions afterwards.... at least that is what he looked like he was doing....

Some Meetup Belly Wiggles

Today I joined in with one of my new Charlotte Meetup Photography Groups to take pix of Belly Dancers.  It was my first time working with this crowd and hopefully not the last as it took a little while to get hold of the vibe of the group and figure out how they work.

I have my doubts that the models do too much work as Belly Dancers (for real) and possibly prefer just to wear the costumes and have fun with it.  Regardless, they were a nice crowd and there is always something new to be learned from a different environment and seeing how other photog's do their stuff.

My fave pix were the ones that were not necessarily technically correct in any way, shape or form but we were just having fun messing with the strobe lights and dragging the shutter for up to a second or more, so you get one crisp image from the flash event and light added into the capture for as long as the shutter stays open and at the same time you deliberately move the camera to capture more movement.

Some really interesting and very creative images were shot by doing this and these are probably the ones that will end up finding their way into some piece of "altered reality" in the not too distant future....as I really like the ghosting and ethereal effects that turned up, especially after a bit of tweaking in Camera RAW.

Life Lakely V4

It's been a while since I posted a pic of the "Lake" ... but tonight's crescent moon, sundry stars and aeroplanes and the dashing about of late night boats on the water were too pretty to miss.

I shot this at ISO 400, f9 @ 1m 15 secs in bulb mode.  I had to up the ISO to shorten the exposure time as I did not realise just "quite" how fast the moon moves!

I like taking long exposure night photos, but as with everything, there's a bit of a learning curve to get it just right.

 

Pretty Love(ly) Gardens

Yesterday DH and I tripped out to try and see the Spider Lillies at Landsford Canal State Park, but thanks to the recent Tropical Storm, we were out of luck as the river was massively swollen and a raging torrent, making stepping out to the lilly field impossible. 
So in order to make the most of the day we headed to the Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens to see what we could see.

... and we were not disappointed.  Despite the fact that it is early in the blooming season, the gardens were resplendent with color and interesting creatures to photograph.

And just as we were on our way out and I had stopped to take one last picture I came upon this happy pair....

and could not help but capture their special moment....

 

 

... and yes, I have sent them a copy of the pics for their album!!  As you can gather, she said "YES"!

What "Eye" Spied Today

Sipping a cuppa on the deck this afternoon I spied this lovely creature alight at the bottom of the garden.  In a flash I was back inside for the camera but by the time I'd returned my magestic birdie had disappeared. 

A little peering around discovered him removed to next door's garden, so I crept stealthily down the steps and through the grass, tiptoe'ing ever so slowly...... and was rewarded by being allowed to get within about 20 feet or so and treated to a few preening poses before this lovely Great Blue Heron flew off.

(...and just for the record, regarding my previous post .... I'm quite happy with my new life on the lake, and with taking photographs and teaching photoshop - there are just times when conversations happen which make you think of past times, in this case, triggering fond memories of a profession well loved....)

Faces of Interest

Today DH and I ventured off to the Loch Norman Highland Games and Scottish Festival.  There was lots to see there and plenty of good camera fodder.

There were kilts of every tartan imagineable from every clan I've ever heard of, and many that I'd not, highland games conducted on the field, pipe bands playing, shepherds "sheeping" and various re-enactment cameos abounded ranging from somewhat medieval to civil war displays.
It was truly quite impressive.

As always, I was drawn to the people and faces.  For someone who professes not to be that keen on portrait photography, I seem to do a heck of a lot of it..... though I think that it's more that I am drawn to the character style of that genre and not the dress up party look, if that makes sense.

Is there such a thing as photojournalistic portraiture?  If so, then that's probably my bag....

After gadding about we decided to test out yet another of the local haunts for a bite to eat.  The Rusty Rudder is a "rock throw" away from our house, which sits on the lake shore, right between the two masts of the yachts to the right.
The food is kind of average American Pub stuff, but the view is stellar and the live band music was pretty good and so was the beer .... I can rather see making this the "local" over the summer months!!....

 

Water Falling

Today we headed out from Cornelius to the Blue Ridge Mountains to join a Meetup Group to take photos of the waterfalls at DuPont State Forrest.  The 2.5hr drive did not leave me dissapointed and this shot of Hooker Falls is probalby my favourite of the day....

We then hiked for a little while to get to Triple Falls and then onto High Falls where I only shot images from the bottom of the fall, and not the top.  (High Falls is the third image down.)

All in all it was a great day.  The chillier temps (in the 60's) made it perfect for hiking, especially when going uphill and lugging a bunch of camera gear and a tripod.

I'd quite like to repeat the adventure, with a little local knowledge in hand and perhaps a bit more time to contemplate the "shot" with a little less chaos, as it was very busy along the trail today.

None the less, it was fun, nice to meet new people, stretch my camera wings again and get my freckles dusted with sunshine....