Tuesday Cards -- Photos

I opted for a photo card this week for my Tuesday mailing.  The photo is an edited one of a bunch of lavender I bought locally in July.  The image was edited with a layer of "texture."

Spring on the west side of Oregon

On our recent trip across the country to NYC, we spent time in Portland with our youngest son.  Two walks in the neighborhood resulted in some wonderful flower images.

124 “Best Photos of 2009″ Blog Posts

124 “Best Photos of 2009″ Blog Posts    

My dream is to take photos like some of these!  DPS is a wonderful site for photographic inspiration.

Thinking of warmer weather

I realize that spring is several weeks away, but that doesn't prevent me from thinking about it. Last year, I photographed two clematis plants at my sister's house. She and her husband planted them so they climb posts supporting the pergola out their back door. One clematis is as blue as I've seen in a flower and grows only halfway up the post, while the other is a rich purple that climbs up and over the pergola roof. Last summer, they were unbelievably rich with blossoms. These photographs have been "PhotoShopped" to take away the 'reality' and enhance the lines and colors.

Time to put the wreath away

One of my best purchases before Christmas in 2008 was this fabulous purple wreath (It's probably magenta, but I call it purple). It even has tiny purple lights on it. With the new mint-green color of our house (which has begun turning alarmingly blue where it gets lots of sun.....new paint job in store for the summer and the paint company is paying for it!), the wreath was a perfect addition to our front porch. I always hate putting it back into the attic until Christmas season rolls around again.

Street Tour continued

(click on photos for closer view)

Street Tour

For my Guerrilla Photography course, the assignment was to take a 'street tour' and capture images. I started with old buildings in Elgin and moved 20 miles to La Grande, where the streets are more interesting. Several photos have been 'filtered' or 'brushed' in Adobe Elements. (Click on individual photos for a closer view.)

High in the Wallowa Mountains

It was a deer hunting expedition with my husband on the last afternoon of the season. We drove high into the Wallowa-Whitman wilderness, covering 150 miles in the 5 hours we were gone from home. Deer sightings were scarce, but the views of the Wallowa Mountains......wow! We felt as if we were eye-level with some of those peaks.

Trees under snow in the Blue Mountains

The photo is almost two years old, but it's one of my favorites. I shot it from the car as my husband and I drove home over the Blue Mountains of NE Oregon in late December.

Goose, goose, duck!

"On location" for my advanced digital photography class taught by Jessica Wesolek, I visited a jewel tucked into the corner of a huge field that has become "the" place for weddings and other happy events. The two adjoining ponds have resident geese and an 'orange' duck. These are photos from one early evening shoot when the sun was low in the sky, illustrating the problems of shadows caused by extreme light conditions.

Signs of Fall

There are indications that this year's fall season could be beautiful, assuming the nightly temperatures don't fall too far below freezing. The days are still sunny and warm. A brief rainstorm moved through very early Sunday morning, and the clouds the rest of the day were glorious.

Blue Clematis

There aren't many truly blue flowers, I guess, but this clematis of my sister's comes so close! It winds around a post supporting the pergola out their back door.

Bronze sunflower

Sunflowers come in such wonderful colors and sizes now. This bronze one in my mother's front yard was glistening after a rainstorm recently.

Playing with floral photos....just click!

These two photos are the same vibrant lily blossom found in a bouquet. With just a little manipulation in Adobe Elements, the second image has taken on 'poster edges.' Click on the photos for close-up details.

Lower Valley and beyond

This is a view of the valley in NE Oregon where I grew up. Lower Valley is in the foreground, with the line of trees that follow the Wallowa River separating the valley from Diamond Prairie. (Actually, I guess that it's all part of a large valley, backed up by the beautiful Wallowa Mountains. Click on the photo for a very large view!)

Late summer color

A pledge I made to myself was to post photos on a regular basis once I started a blog. Coneflowers and black-eyed daisies provide weeks and weeks of wonderful color.

The road to????

Vehicle tracks look strange in this field of grain along Parsons Lane NE of town.

My first blogged photo!

Digital Photography School http://digital-photography-school.com/ is a website crammed full of information and instruction for the digital photographer. The weekend challenge is Landscape. There is a lot of landscape in this area, but much of it is hidden behind pine trees. Early this morning, I loaded my two cameras and a tripod into the car and drove a 20-mile loop to find some landscapes suitable for photographing.