Flowers – The Vintage Look

Flower - Lexington Arboretum

  Jeane has been after me for sometime to produce some work that has a more vintage look, feeling that it may fit in with today’s decorating trends. It started with small hints ” Oh! I like that style.” and now has progressed to “You should ………” , so I shall …… , or at least attempt to.  I started out looking at a lot of vintage picture’s  and began forming an ideal of what I would like.  With these in mind, I start looking through 1000’s of photo’s searching for the right match. I didn’t realize at first that most photo’s don’t lend themself’s to this style and had to go through stacks to come up with a few to work on. These two are the first and I’ll try to post some other’s as they are completed

Roses- The vintage look

Flower Photography

These were taken in the fall last year

  I found these little flowers while walking the many paths running throught the Lexington Aboretum. It was early morning and the sun was not quite up yet which makes the colors jump out from the background. Little or no wind allowed for a longer exposure and better dept of field. These are small upright flowers on a stalk much like glad’s, but much smaller. I decided to shoot them in landscape format and only captured a small section of the overall flower.

   You can see this and other photograph’s at Beldendesigns.com or by visiting us on Facebook to view our Art Show schedule and new releases.

New website.

 Thanks to Dreamweaver I got around to putting up a new website, still needs some work but is coming along. Check it out at http://www.beldendesigns.com

Amsterdam Canals- Photography

Bridge over a small side canal in Amsterdam

   I would like to start with a little history about this photo and the reason for the type of post processing that was done. The photo was taken very early morning on a small side canal that runs behind the Botanical gardens in Amsterdam. I happened on this spot while at the Botanical gardens and fell in love with it. The small canal had two bridges, one where the canal feeds into a larger canal and this one that leads to the service area on the back side of the gardens.  You can stand on the far side and either way you look is beautiful. That’s the good stuff, now for the bad stuff. I had just bought a new Canon 17-40L lens to use on the trip and had used it very little. I was shooting and checking composition and exposure after each shot like always. Everything seems fine till I loaded the 1200+ photo’s on to my computer and found that 75% where badly out of focus, which did not show up in the camera’s viewing screen. I sent the camera and lens off to Canon and found that the lens was not focusing correctly. Canon repaired it at no cost (other than shipping) and it works great now. But I still ended up with 700-800 photo’s that where either a little or  a lot out of focus. The above photo fell in the little category, so I started messing with it. I decided sharpening was making it look worse, so I decided to go the other way.  I added a 15% burr to the picture and readjusted the light levels, and then boosted the yellows to add accents to the trees. For me it seems to have saved a picture that I thought was lost. I would really like to hear opinions, good or bad.

Roses #2- Photography

Light Dew coats Rose at Lexington's Arboretum

 With the weather starting to change for the better, I’m looking forward to spring  and the first flowers. The early morning walks through the Arboretum are always a quite, peaceful time for me. This is another picture that was overlooked from early summer 2010.

Roses – Photography

Pink Roses, Taken at Lexington Arboretum

 

Rose- Lexington Arboretum- Canon 50d

  I decided to look back through the 7000+ photograph’s I have taken in the past 5-10 yrs to see if there were any I overlooked. The two Rose photo’s above were taken at the Lexington Arboretum in the summer of 2009. I adjusted the levels and added a little sharpening.  Hope you like them.

Daisy Reflection

White Daisy Reflection

Iris Reflection- Photography

Iris reflection

 I awoke this morning thinking I would be out photographing snow landscapes, but things don’t always go as planned.  It had snowed over night, but not as much as they had called for, so Plan ” B “.  What is plan “B”? Photograph flowers anytime Plan “A” falls through. Of course sometimes, OK most of the time,  plan “A” is the same as plan “B’.  I had to run out and pick up coffee and while in the local Kroger store I spotted these Irises.  They must have just arrived and where still in great shape.  The photograph was shot in my very high-tech studio, which my wife calls her kitchen.  Glossy Black paper, kitchen table, main light from the left is window, white reflector on right and camera on tripod. Used a canon 50d with 70-200 f/4 at  f/22.  The purple light and scrolled line were added in Photoshop.

Dew covered Rose reflection- Photography

Dew covered rose reflection

 Well like an old hound dog on a scent, even if it’s not the right one, I’m going to follow this trail a little further. The rose was photographed on black glass, then the reflection was added in Photoshop along with the scrolled line and side lighting. The three water drops were added last and I am still not happy with the contrast and lighting on those, but with a little more work , it should make a nice picture. They are calling for a chance of snow here in the bluegrass state, so maybe I’ll get off on a new path.

Rose Reflection- Photography

Rose reflection on black glass

  This started as a photograph of a Rose on black glass. I then flip the image  and added a layer mask with gradient to create the reflection. Scroll was added. The longest time was spent adding the water drops and  work done on the stem.