Shades of lavender

(Credits: True Grit Texture by RH West. Grunge border bar brush by Shadowhouse Creations). 

I found these lovely lavender wildflowers in the field across from our house this morning. Their bright color stood out in the dreariness of the morning. (Its been rainy here all day). I brought them indoors and put them in this old vintage medicine bottle on my kitchen windowsill. 

When I uploaded my photos, I decided I wanted to do something special with these photos - something a little different. I decided to play around in Photoshop with some brushes. I haven't used brushes in Photoshop too much until today. I didn't really understand how to use them until this week when I started taking Kim Klassen's Essentials class. She briefly mentioned brushes in the first lesson, so I thought I would experiment a little. For those of you who don't know what brushes are, brushes work like stamps or like real paint brushes. Photoshop comes loaded with many, but you can find millions of others on the internet. Anything from old sticky tape brushes, to old handwriting, birds, trees, swirls and borders ... the list goes on and on. 

So in my photos, I applied two layers of the True Grit Texture by RH West to all three photos. I then used an old handwriting brush and grunge border bar brush from Shadowhouse Creations to give the photos a vintage/timeworn feel. I'm really pleased with how they turned out. I'm quite positive you will be seeing me doing more work with brushes in the future. 

Again, it's not wordless by any means, but happy WW anyway!! 

xo, 
tish

Summer is fading away ... | Word{ful} Wednesday

(Credits: Collage page inspired by Project Alicia. Background is Kim Klassen's Charmed Texture. Old Sticky Tape Photoshop brushes by Fuzzimo. Fonts: 1942 Report from dafont.com and Pea Alexis from Kevin & Amanda).

Back in July, I posted photos of summer flowers in Polaroid frames created by Fuzzimo and learned a little bit about digital scrapbooking.  I thought I'd create a little collage with some photos I took around our yard this week ... what's left of our summer flowers. They are becoming more spindly, dropping their petals and producing less and less. 

For me, its very difficult to let go of summer, but it seems I have little choice in the matter. Fall is being thrust upon me in all directions. Don't get me wrong, I don't hate fall by any means, but its terribly hard to say goodbye to my most favorite season of them all. But I will ... give me another few weeks and I will be embracing the Autumn season as much as the next guy. Afterall, I do have a serious weakness for boots, scarves and sweaters.






If you're like me and need a boost to get into the fall spirit, you can visit my Autumn Love Pinterest board for a little inspiration. I did click on it this morning and have to admit, I did get a tiny bit excited! ha!

Certainly not wordless, but Happy WW anyway!
xo, 
tish

Wrightsville Beach: Part Deux

To see more beach photos, click here.

xo,
tish

I Clicked It Up a Notch | August 2012

Though my last blog post was loaded with photos from my newborn nephew's photo shoot, I just had to choose this one for the I Clicked it Up a Notch photo challenge this month. Being that this was my very first shot at newborn photography, I am quite pleased with how the shoot went and how the photos came out. 

I was nervous about first of all, shooting indoors. I've tried to mostly shoot in manual mode since I decided to delve into photography, but indoor photography in manual mode can be a bit tricky for me. In addition, this was the first time I lugged all my gear to someone else's home and shot photos inside. I was crossing my fingers for good light and a cooperative newborn. I felt I had prepared myself adequately enough by reading up on newborn photography. I knew a key element is patience. And sure enough, we did have to exercise some patience as he wasn't certain he wanted to sleep for us. But, after a feeding and some cuddling, he drifted off and we got our photos. I am pleased with how these photos came out and hope for the opportunity to work with more newborns in the future.






xo,  tish