Cat Portrait

I took this photograph of Sammy The Cat in 2004..He passed away last week so tonight I thought I would do a painterly effect of his photograph.. Here is the original:

The white pad seemed distracting so I added a portion of the top blanket to hide the white pad... It isn't perfect but for a quick fix I am happy with it....Then I opened it in Topaz adjust and Topaz simplify to give it a painterly effect..Here is the Finished Portrait:

Today's Magic

I was walking home and thought I would take a photo of my friends truck and 5th wheel for him..Here is the original photograph:

I decided it would look nicer if I took out the trailer behind his truck and cleaned up the road with some grass and poppies.. here is the result:

Finally I decided to open the above photograph in Topaz adjust and Topaz simplify in photoshop.
And with the help of a layer mask I brought back some detail in the truck, trailer, and trees.

Final Photo with a painterly effect:

Beautiful Sunrise

This morning I looked out my window . Wow....Grabbed my camera and went outside to enjoy what was left of a beautiful sunrise...I love the way early morning light makes large shadows in  the landscape..Here is the first photograph : (Click to see Larger)

To me it looked a little dull, so I opened it in Photoshop CS4. (Could have used Photoshop Elements.)

Did a little magic with topaz Adjust..Then I opened the photo in Topaz Simplify, on a duplicate layer, to give it a painterly effect..Used a layer mask to bring back wanted detail, and finished it with the high pass filter for a sharper effect.

 Since I am experimenting lately, I decided to try Topaz Detail to give it a little more color and detail..

Time to take a walk...

Bright Painterly Flowers

Last spring I went to Goldsmith Seed Company on Hecker Pass Rd to take some photographs of their flowers. ...Here is a typical photograph of group of flowers, after some photoshop work.

 Then I thought how would these look if I did a Topaz Simplify Harsh color painterly effect. (click on the photograph to see it larger)

It kind of reminds me of my mother..She always dressed in bright colors....Here are a couple of more harsh painterly color photographs...

Hummingbird Fantasy

Hi..This month the theme of the Morgan Hill Camera Club is Silhouettes.. I found this silhouette of two Cats  looking out a window at a hummingbird bird feeder..

Then I thought why don't I try to add a hummingbird to make it realistic..I found a hummingbird in my picture files.

 I reduced its size with the free transform tool... and layered it over the cat photograph...with a mask added to the bird layer I painted in the detail the original photo around the hummingbird.. its not a great picture but it was fun to make..

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New Rose effects

Today I woke up in a creative mode..here are a few more roses with different effects.. The first one has some motion blur added to the background.

Now for some more Irish Roses..Are you getting tired of green yet?

 How about little different green and red rose...

One with some motion in the background..have a nice day

St Patricks Day Rose

This Saturday, I am going to my Nephew's St Patrick's Day party so I thought I would see if I could change yesterdays rose  into a green rose using lab color mode in photoshop. Its kind of wild but for me it has an Irish feeling...

And finally I opened it up in Corel Painter Essentials 4 and did an impressionist painting effect..

Happy St Paddy's Day Everyone....