Frosted Mountain

It seems like winter is over. It seems like it is getting warmer. But then, driving into the mountains, I see this… And I know that in Colorado winter is always waiting in the wings.

I loved this mountain top, though. It did look exactly like it was frosted, as well as the trees. Gorgeous drive and a great spot. Seen near the summit of Wolf Creek Pass 1 week ago.

Also part of the images shown at http://www.kelleybard.com/places, and on various other online spots (facebook, flickr, etc) with handy links to the right.

Enjoy!

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!

Half Dome from bridge (Second of 2 photos)- I’d LOVE comments here!

So here’s my second version of the same image, processed a bit more “HDR’y” although both came from the same HDR image.  I like the more extreme HDR look here, but don’t like the increased noise in the water and trees, and the smoothed out look that came from my Topaz Denoise noiseware also bugs me in some of the plants along the river.  The other is probably the best technically… But this one calls to me still…

So I’m torn.  Love some comments to see which YOU like better.

Posted to Facebook and flickr.

Enjoy!

Half Dome from Bridge, Calm (first of 2 versions of photo)

Classic photo of Half-Dome… I had to try my hand at it.  This is from a bridge across the Merced River, which gives you the perfect image of Half Dome.  That day, and every day I was in Yosemite Valley on this trip, there was this heavy ground fog as well.  I really like how it made the image come out.

Photo is an HDR from 3 different exposures, all taken with tripod and processed in Photomatix Pro 4.  I then did some shifting and cleaning up in Photoshop.  I tried a different approach today, usually I remove all the noise and significantly soften the image, but after a Nik Software landscape class this morning, I decided to leave the image with a bit more noise and do more sharpening as well.  I have stayed away from sharpening in many of my images and perhaps they have suffered a bit… any thoughts from out there on this conundrum?

I’ll review the Nik class in the near future, but in short, it was a good one!

Oh, black and white because of the Ansel Adams fan in me.  I literally can’t see a photo of Half Dome in color, it just doesn’t work for me.  I did apply a blue filter to this, to bring out the glow in the white snow.  It adds a nice mood, I think.

The other version is a bit more noisy and a bit more contrasty… more of your classic HDR I think… I’ll post it tomorrow, so come back!

This will go to flickr and facebook and my website:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kelleybardphotography

facebook has a link off this page

website: http://www.kelleybard.com.

Love your comments, especially after tomorrows version is posted!

Enjoy.

Yosemite Falls in Early Winter

Yosemite Falls.  So, what do you think?  I like how the photo came out, and I like how the noise removal made the rocks look, but the trees are made pretty spacey…. oh, HDR.  How I love your look but not some of the side issues.

Anyways, I would love to hear comments.

Posted here, flickr (kelleybardphotography) and http://www.kelleybard.com/places.

Enjoy!