kareng

Vrindavan, Teo,

Thanks for your comments. I'm glad you enjoyed this. This guy lives in the National Zoo in D.C. Maybe someday I will get a chance to take wildlife photos in the wild, but for now, the zoo is it.

Greetings from Washington DC.

Karen

Micki,

He's actually a Sloth Bear (Melursus ursinus), but he's a close relative of the Sun Bear (Helarctos malayanus). (I'm a nerd, I can't help it.) Sun Bears have a short sleek coat and shorter muzzle, but the coloring and size are very similar and their natural range has a very slight overlap. The Sloth Bear can close his nostrils so no termites or ants or dust go up his nose while he's eating, he also has no front teeth to make it easier to suck up the bugs. They are also both known as Honey Bears, as they like to climb trees to knock down bee hives so they can eat the honey. If I were a bear, I'd totally do that.

I'm glad you both appreciated his nude shot. ;) I tried to crop his privates out but it didn't look right.

Glad your sunset started getting decent ratings, it's a great shot.

Karen

Thanks Miguel. This was my first try with these filters, glad you liked it.

Karen

HAHA. Too funny, fergi. Thanks for stopping by. :)

He does look nice and cuddly until you check out his claws. They use them to dig ants and termites out of wood, but I'd imagine they would take a nice sized piece of you if he was angry.

This is the best I can do for a nude of Merlin.

Karen

I tried it in B&W but I couldn't get it to look right. Kinda felt like I lost something without the color of his eyes and his fur on his chest.

Oh and yes, I got quite a few photos of him looking right at me. He was being a ham, it was adorable.

Karen

My skin and makeup don't get along very well. Mascara sometimes makes my eyes turn red, powder makes me sneeze, everything else makes my skin itch and freak out. Most perfumes make me sneeze too.. I have to hold my breath while walking through the perfume section of department stores. I love my life. I really do. ;p

Karen

Wow that looks a lot better. I have elements now, so maybe I will revisit the original file and see if I can follow your lead. Your version looks awesome.

Karen

By all means, see what you can do with it. I don't mind at all when people play with my photos.

Glad you liked it.

Karen

I might have to check out that filter. It sounds like fun.

Karen

It's all good. I actually like your version.. looks pretty.

Karen

So I fiddled with it already. Forgot I had the raw images and Elements on this laptop. Check it out.

Karen

I like your edit. That came out really cool. Now that I have Elements I can do lots of cool stuff, I'm going to have to play with this one when I get home from work.

Karen

Compared to the original, what do you think?

I was hoping you'd stop by this folder, I have no idea what I'm doing. I just play with the filters in PS until something looks cool.

Karen

This is the remnants of a DVD drive that I recently replaced. It wasn't broken yet but it was so loud that it had to go. I love taking things apart, and I had nothing better to do, so out came the tools.

The contraption in the middle is the laser assembly that zips around and reads the discs. I took a picture of it on a black background too, but something about using the circuit board as a backdrop made sense to me.

This really is the first time I've ever touched a .NEF file or any raw image for that matter, I have always use jpgs that come right out of the camera.

I liked the purple too, that's all color correction through the Camera Raw plugin. I can get all the 3/3s in the world on this one, I still think it's cool.

Karen

I was impressed by his work as well. It's not like I've never seen a flower reflected in some way in water or through PS work, but something about his style was very pleasing to my eyes.

I like what you've done here, as I really like the bright red on the black background. While his was titled "love and loss" I think yours screams vibrance and life.

The texture on the petals is very nice and I'm pleased with the way your reflection work came out. It looks great.. trippy, but great.

My only nitpick is that the edges between the red of the flower and the black background are somewhat harsh and seem less than natural. My brain seems to want a softer edge there for some reason.. I suppose that's really personal preference.

Good stuff.

Karen

An alteration of the original shot here.

Comments and suggestions welcome. I just started doing digital alterations.

Nice use of that filter. It makes the scene very abstract and makes the girl the real focus of the image. I like it.

Karen

Really great shot.

Gotta admit though, I am more than a wee bit jealous. What a remarkable woman she is.

Karen

I usually do ok, but I might end up needing help. You should see me in DC, I find all sorts of stuff that I wasn't looking for.

Karen

Yep.. gonna have to do that sometime soon. Hopefully I can find my way to the seawall without too much trouble. I'm really good at finding everything BUT what I was looking for, so I might end up in Ghent by accident. ;)

Karen