June Image - Stone House with Bluebonnets

How I did it -

 The original image was taken in Mason County, Texas, in April on one of our wildflower drives. It was one of those "wrong time of day but I'm here now" photos. I used the "Artistic/Poster Edges"� filter lightly and selectively on the house, the tree area and most of the foreground bluebonnets. This had the effect of toning down the light on the stone of the house and adding definition to the texture as well as defining the tree branches and the flowers in the foreground. To minimize the strong roof shadow on the house I used a non-destructive dodging technique to lighten the shadowed area. I hope you consider the treated version to be an improvement on the original, although not exactly creative.

COMMENTS:

Nancy's post-comment space	.
Jim Hawkins	You did a nice job of cropping the original and then selectively enhancing certain photo elements while thoughtfully removing others.  For me that is the very essence of creativity.  The PSA definition of "Creativity" as "Altered Reality" is all wet on several grounds.  I have never tried to raise an issue about it because I am not able to offer a better alternative.  I like your house.
Claudia Peterson	In my Club, this would be considered a Pictorial. Having said that, I do think the treatment is perfect for this image and improves it tremendously. I really enjoy the image and appreciate the lovely flowers and old rock building.
Elli Kraizberg	Very gentle treatment which emerges as a beautiful image. It is hard to judge the Degree of improvement due to the very small size of the original photo.
Ian Ledgard	You don't just have to use outrageous techniques to be creative as you have proved with this very subtle manipulation. The effect is very pleasing and certainly to my mind an improvement on the original. Do you have any other shots where the building is less dominant than in this composition where the building is I find just a little overpowering.
Frank Crommelin	I like the image and what you have done with it, it is definitely an improvement, it has increased the sharpness considerable. The only thing I would change is to clone out the corrugated metal in the window to look more like the door opening. This would make a great calendar picture it has a peaceful another time and place look.
Andrés Canepa	I like your new frame, moving the subject to the right (to the crash point), the place is amazing and the improvements correct, may be I not toning down the clouds. I am agree with you about in this times it is “not exactly creative”. I this cases I encourage you to make a HDR image, shoot tree images with -2EV 0EV +2EV, and joint in Photomatix.

Nancy Parker - Biography I am a retired university professor.  I currently volunteer one day a week in research at the Missouri Botanical Garden on “The Flora of Missouri” project.  I have taken pictures casually since I got my first Brownie Hawkeye camera when I was about 12.  I got my first 35 mm camera, a Canon AE1, about 40 years ago.  I shot kids, grandkids, and mostly nature for years and was “official” field and lab photographer for a large botany group at the university, shooting slides.  I joined the St. Louis Camera Club in 2002 and PSA in 2006.   Within the past five years I have discovered Photoshop and, continuing my march through the Canon EOS series,  moved to digital with the 30D.  I still like to shoot nature but I now shoot a variety of subjects and LOVE playing in Photoshop, although I am still a novice.