A moment of zen… Early Morning Bay Bridge

Calm water, fog… ahhh. I had dreamed, planned to go to the Ferry Building in San Francisco months before I arrived. For sunrise. I wasn’t sure how in the hell I was going to wake up that early on a vacation, with no car, and get down there (taxi worked well, btw), but I was going to do it. And I actually followed through. I think that I am more apt to do hard work for art that I love, than for myself. Just an observation- maybe my own moment of zen.

Often my photos end up on my website- http://www.kelleybard.com. I also have flickr, facebook and google+ accts where I post photos. Flickr and Facebook are under “Kelley Bard Photography”, google+ is under Kelley Bard. Look me up in those places if you wish, oftentimes there is overlap, but sometimes I post a photo just to one area, or observations/thoughts/fun stuff.

 

2 very different photos from San Francisco

SF Trolley Car

Unknown Couple in Union Square

The first photo has gotten many early positive reviews from others, and I’m glad- it was a bit of post-production work and I’m always happy when that goes off well. The second… well, it’s todays photo so I’ll report back if I get lots of responses. Or if YOU respond, which I always love! Also, with these moments into people’s lives photos… if you know who this is, I would love to be able to contact them. I was glad to get to photograph this moment for them and for others.

More always available at www.kelleybard.com, check around there if you would like to!

Filbert St. Nightshade

Just a favorite little spot, and a beautiful flower from there.

Filbert St. Steps in San Francisco. Ever heard of it? It’s the best secret spot there. Guaranteed to be tourist free most of the time, mainly because it is STEEP. But it’s once in a lifetime. A tropical secret path on the backside of the Coit Tower hill, kept up beautifully by the people who live off the pathway. Quiet, green, beautiful views… it’s got it all. I love it. Also absurdly romantic… But the best part is something I haven’t even seen, which is the flock of wild parrots (pet escapees for 40+ years) which lives on this hillside as well. So you have views of the Bay Bridge, the wharf area, Coit Tower, and beautiful, unimaginably tropical foliage and animals. All on a deserted San Francisco street. What’s not to love?

I’ll post a pic of the pathway soon… I was just so in love with this flower against the palms that I had to show it off.

See more photos on http://www.kelleybard.com.

 

Golden Gate Bridge Tower

This shot is an HDR taken looking up one of the main towers of the Golden Gate Bridge. The HDR caught some of the grungy metal texture and amplified it, and the color, etc was finished in Photoshop. I also used Topaz Adjust in this one, which I don’t use much anymore. But it gave some startling detail to the image.

More at www.kelleybard.com if you are interested!

Enjoy… and if this makes you think of a certain two towers in New York City… well, I can’t say that they weren’t in the back of my mind when I finished this photo.

 

Mmm, Hungry? Chinatown Butcher’s

Taken from the window of a San Francisco Chinatown’s butcher shop. I couldn’t resist. I loved the exotic look, the joy of exploring this area. I’ve spent time in Chinatown before but it was nice to be back… and a fun way to spend an afternoon!

I show images at www.kelleybard.com. If you have a moment, why not stop by?

 

San Francisco Love… Bit of the Bridge

Being in San Francisco is such an utter joy for me. This trip, I found myself noticing a lot of random, abstract-type things around the city. You will see a lot of them come out in the near future, like this image. Just a subtle reminder of how much of the Golden Gate Bridge ISN’T in this photo…

see more at www.kelleybard.com. As always, thanks for visiting!

 

Stay Close To Your Friends

An oldie but a goodie… well, shot 9 months ago but I couldn’t decide how to finish it. I have always liked it, though, and I’m glad I finally worked it out well.

VERY similar to an earlier photo of mine (one which I did finish in a timely manner) but this was on the other side of Yosemite Valley and down a bit towards Half Dome.

More at www.kelleybard.com.

 

 

Ladybug on Leaves- experiment photo. Tomorrow photo teaser, too! Plus Japanese Earthquake Support.

Sometimes I come across a photo which I like, but know it’s just not 100% great… this was one like that. I liked the idea and the image, but in the original, the ladybug and the leaves were almost the same color (taken in Yosemite in early December). There was also some distracting elements- the leaves in the lower right corner were in focus, but which dragged the eye downward (I felt). So I played, experimenting. I think my weekend pictures will be more on this level from now on- I’ll still post fav images if I am really in the mood, but I’ll try to save the great ones for the week. That means, though, that I’ll have more experimental and fun ones on the weekends, and sometimes those get the most responses. So don’t walk away on the weekends… unless you have a life or something (unlike me).

Anyways, OnOne PhotoTools has been a good help lately, so I went there. I’m finding that I use that for blur and glow pics mostly, and I wanted to explore more filters. This photo got the antique color filter and the 81 warming filter. I also went back into Photoshop and Lightroom and blurred the area around the ladybug (masking rocks) and played with the ladybug’s coloring as well.

A fun experiment, for sure.

Enjoy my photography at www.kelleybard.com. This one isn’t there yet, but I depend on the comments of others to tell me what is good and what isn’t, so I factor in responses here, on facebook and on flickr to get ideas of what to post in the future.

**Speaking of future posts, I have a photo which I’ve been working on since November which I’m finally happy with- that will be my photo tomorrow. For Boulderites, it’s an image from one of your amazing local sites. Check back to see the image- hopefully stunning HDR (already submitted to hdrspotting.com as well). **

**The 2 images which I created for Japanese Earthquake support are on my site at www.kelleybard.com/donation. I have had many visits but not many purchases and I’d love comments on why you think that may be. I really hope to be able to help in this small way. I really, really like the idea of giving back, though, so I will be working to build relationships and add images monthly or so which will be “donation” images. Suggest some organizations and causes to me, I’ll be working with the companies to bring some knowledge and hopefully some financial support their way in the future.**

Glowing Ribbon of Water, and Thanks again for the Visits! And… Event Monday

I think, after my steampunk balloon photo, I’m trying to push the fantasy look of my photos a bit. So this is Lower Yosemite Falls, Idealized in my mind, for all eternity. The original pic wasn’t quite so perfect… not far from the final image, but more blah, less great water (in all honesty, I wish I could be one of those photographers who could make total fantasy creations in Photoshop- either I’m not creative enough, or just not computer/Photoshop savvy enough, but I wouldn’t even know where to start!). I always liked this pic, though, so I wanted to finish it. Photoshop and Topaz Adjust cleaned up the foggy look a bit, and sharpened it up. I turned it black and white, which made it better, but still not perfect… I went into OnOne PhotoTools and finally got the right mix, ghosting and glowing the water a bit, while still getting the sharpness of the rocks and the details. I finished with Lightroom and made the sepia look… which worked in my mind as I saw this as sorta ideal, possibly in the past Yosemite Falls.

Besides talking about this pic, I wanted to thank you all, again, for another max day yesterday! I think it was that steampunk balloon image that caught someone’s attention… I try to notice that and it’s good for me to see what works for people and what doesn’t, so keep commenting and visiting pics and such, please!

This, along with my other fav pics and (most importantly) YOUR fav pics, is posted to www.kelleybard.com. I’ve also got it on flickr and facebook. Hopefully I’ll get some more feedback on this in one or all places, so I can see what YOU think of it. Comments are loved, always. And keep visiting!

Enjoy.

**Event- Grand Opening of The Red Tent, a womens healing center in Durango, CO**

Monday, Valentines Day from 5-7 is the grand opening of The Red Tent. I spent a good amount of today there, putting my pics on the walls. I’ll be one of the featured artists for the next 2 months there. I’ve got 3 framed images (one a 30×40 frame and 20×30 print, it’s HUGE!) and a canvas wrap coming (another first). I hope to get lots and lots of maternity and infant work out of this, it will be a fun place to be associated with! Check out www.redtentwellness.com for information. And maybe… see you there!

Lower Yosemite Falls Rainbow Mist

A rainbow photo! Who couldn’t love a rainbow photo?

LOL. I had to work a bit in photoshop with brightening the colors of the rainbow while keeping them manageable in all the other parts of the image… also in darkening it to the point that the blacks approached true black (I try my hardest to have light from white to black in every image I finish). I do have a spot of the stream of water which got blown out. It makes me want to go back and create an HDR just to see if I can draw that back from the edge a bit (I almost always take 3 exposures of my images so that I can make an HDR or High Dynamic Range image from the combination of them, if I want to). Overall I like this shot and I think it would crop well to an 8×10 or so, which is nice.

I have my best work at my website, http://www.kelleybard.com, and my daily photos always get posted here, on Kelley Bard Photography’s facebook page, and on flickr. See the links to easily access any of these!

Enjoy!