Valentines Day Love

Happy Valentine's Day!

Over the years Valentine's Day has become much more that just a day for our romantic love.

Today we celebrate all people we love...family...friends and don't forget our endearing pets!  Do  a little something today for the people who are special in your life... bake some cookies... write a love note...or just leave little store bought surprise ( you can never go wrong with chocolate surprise in my book!)

... and don't forget to do a little something for yourself - go to lunch with a friend...a movie... or  just take some time to be creative.  What ever you choose - Enjoy your day!

I baked these cookies for my hubby. A friend at work gave me the recipe for these Linzer Cookies and are they scrumptious! I made them over the weekend and I believe they're all gone!!!

Below are 2 different versions. I can't say one is better that the other...just different. I like the both for different reason. The 1st would be great for a cookbook and the second..well just a nice print to hang on your kitchen wall. 

1st version: Minor touchups - darken top left corner with the paint brush (selecting a color near by)

Darkened to of Powdered sugar shaker, sharpened and added a little contrast.

2nd Version:  Applied some actions, texture by Kim Klassen,  a patterned overlay and smoothed out the background with the paint tool. Applied a slight burn using selection and multiply mode.

Love, Love, Love

I guess I have love and Valentines Day on my mind..lol. While I was sleeping last night I kept coming up with "love" image ideas. I guess I didn't sleep much - ha.
In this weeks Beyond Layers  class we worked on photographing in our home "studio" with natural light. One thing that Kim Klassen talked about was evaluating your image...walking away and coming back to see it with fresh eyes. It's amazing how much this helps. Take todays image. I reworked this 3 times to get the image you see above.

The 1st image: After walking away and looking at this image again the back heart seemed to be too bold. Sometimes you're so intent on working on the image that we don't see the most obvious.

2nd Image: softened/desaturated the back heart
Better, but it still bothered me. I felt my eye was still drawn to that heart and it certainly was not where I want the attention of the viewer to be.

3rd Image:  (Same as 1st image) I decided to remove the back heart. I used a large soft cloning brush to do this and then used the eyedropper to select a darker beige color and used my brush with a low opacity to paint and soften the background making it a bit more even.

What do you think? Do you see the difference?

Great advice Kim!

Camera Setting:
Lens: 50 mm 1.4
ISO: 200
Aperture: 1.8
Shutter: 1250th
Texture: Kim Klassen - Magic Scratches and Plastersquared

The little things you love

Have you ever thought about the little things in life that make you smile? ....the things that tell a bit about who you are? For me, there are so many things that I would love to take home with me when I find them...just because they make me feel good when I look at them. They may serve no other purpose other than to make me smile or stir up inspiration. Vintage books, old bottles, tea cups,  flowers, wooden spools of thread and oh....buttons have all found their way into my heart and home at one time or another.  ...and there something magical about old photos and handwritten vintage postcards! It's so much fun to search for these little treasures, take them home with you and create an image or two. Three times the joy!  Surround yourself with the little things you love..just for you!