Crimson & Clover

I was out taking some pictures of the beautiful fall leaves today.  I came across this little tree with red leaves.  I like the red ones the best.  I saw this little stubby leaf that looked like it was only beginning to grow when the colour change took place.  I wanted to capture it just because I thought it was cute.

On my way back to the car, I came across 2 or 3 clovers and after a few shots (using my 18-55mm lens set to macro), I got this one.  Using Photoshop Elements, I auto changed the colour and contrast.

I hope to put some other pictures I took today of the fall foliage over the next few days.  I also got some more photos of my mom's dahlias.  It was a beautiful overcast day - perfect for taking pictures!

Downtown Yesan

This is a picture of one of the streets in the downtown area of the small town I lived in for a year in South Korea.  This particular day was quiet and not many people or cars were around at this point - otherwise it would have been crowded!

In this particular town, there were only about a dozen of us foreigners (white skinned as well), so we were quite the novelty.  The kids may or may not have been at a school where one of us taught.  They were definitely not at my school, because I taught at an all boys middle school.

Tinker Belle

I took this shot yesterday of my cat, Tinker Belle.  I had been attempting to take some photos of tomoatoes, but I don't think they quite turned out.  I'll need to try when there is more light, since I took them when it was getting dark.

I know I should have adjusted it so her ears were in the shot, but I was trying to get her washing her paw.  I like how she has one eye opened and the other closed.

Off Shoot

This is a grove (?) of tree trunks on the hill beside my house.  I took the shot a couple of days ago around supper time.  The light was coming from the back right hand side.  I adjusted the white balance (I believe it was on cloudy because that's the kind of day it was) and snapped the shot. 

Using PSE, I converted the photo to black and white and adjusted the red, green, and blue colours.  This was just more or less a test shot because I was trying to figure out how to change the white balance on my camera.  I had learned awhile back but forgot; so when I found out how to do it again, I tried adjusting it.

I had hoped the photo would have had the trunks in the front more in focus, as well as the shoot of the other tree growing among them, but I guess I didn't have the camera set for that.  It's a learning curve - to make sure you adjust your camera settings, apertures, etc. and take several pictures (using the different settings).  I'm not overly disappointed with the photo though.

South Korea Part 2

This is another photo I took on the excursion my class of Korean English teacher's took me.  This was taken last spring with my Sony digital point and shoot camera.  I liked this tree, even though it didn't have any leaves on it; it seemed to have some character to it and I wanted to take a photo of it in front of the buildings.  My focus was not on the buildings, but the tree.

Unfortunately, I don't know how to fix the sign in the picture (it's way too bright/over exposed).  I might try my hand at removing the object - same with the person who is squatting and taking a photo...

South Korea

Today's photo comes from South Korea.  I spent a year there (2007-2008) teaching English.  In the spring of 2008, the Korean English teachers I taught took me on a little field trip to a somewhat nearby Buddist temple to visit.  Buddism is the largest religious sect in the country, and Christianity is the second largest (I'm Christian).

It was a nice outting, and the temple was located in a lovely spot which was quiet and serene.  When we went, it was close to Budda's birthday so there were little paper lanterns strung out along the paths leading up to the temple area.

I took this photo on my Sony digital point and shoot.  I touched up the colours in Photoshop Elements to make them look a little brighter.

In The Garden

When I got together with my friend Michelle this past Saturday to go on a photoshoot, she dropped off a book and some magazines for me to look through to help with Photoshop Elements.  She had version 6, so these reading materials deal with that.  I have version 7, but she said there isn't much difference between the two so I should be able to use them.

I finally got around to going through the book a little bit today.  Since I've been trying my hand at black & white conversion, I checked out the section on that.  Boy, was I doing it "wrong".  All I had been doing was clicking on the "convert to black and white" option (at the top of the screen under enhance) and then playing around with sliders for adjusting colour, contrast, brightness, etc.

I am much happier with the technique I tried today - and I learned something new as well (the technique).  I follwed the step-by-step instructions and came up with the photo you see in this post.  It's probably not the best shot, or b&w converstion, but I like it.

The book I was following is called the photoshop elements 6 book for digital photographers (no capitals used in the title) by Scott Kelby and Matt Kloskowski.  It seems like a great book, and Michelle said it is an excellent tool to learn PSE.  She said it was expensive, but well worth having.  The magazines, which I haven't had a chance to look through much yet, are called Adobe Photoshop Elements Techniques.  I hope to get around to reading through those very soon.

Do you use Photoshop Elements (any version)?  If so, what's your favourite technique to use?