Scenes from Saturday

Texter, Lady K and I spent Saturday afternoon hiking a bit and visiting the local dams.  So I thought I would show off some of the scenery we saw on our journey.

Love the signs they post on so many of the trails

The bluffs along the river are fascinating

The dark skies and the yucca/agave against it

Loving the birch trees in the area.  They are so white. 

Unfortunately, they wouldn't let me invite them home for dinner. 

More tree bark

Pronghorn antelope on the drive out to Ryan and Morony Dams

Despite the fact it looks like you are driving out on a plain, don't look down.  You are higher than you think.

Another view of the Missouri from the road to the dams.

More cliffs, these near Ryan Dam.

For The Birds

One of the things I like about my new camera, "Cammy",  is the telephoto lens.  So far on my couple of excursions I have managed to get some interesting bird pictures.  Montana is suppose to be great for wildlife and birds.  I have managed only to photograph birds so far.

This guy was taken at Great Springs State Park.  Now I have seen the sea gulls around town (really, all over town), but I didn't expect to see a pelican.

One of the things I like about this goose is the detail I was able to capture in the feathers.  

This was a fortunate 'catch'.  

These geese are braver than I am.  I wouldn't want to be standing out in the rapids like they are, even if I was on a rock.

Hopefully, more bird pictures will follow.  

Faces

I normally do not like to take pictures with people in them.  Not my favorite thing and I think part of it is because I don't like to have my picture taken.  In an effort to learn more about Photoshop and how to 'play' with my pictures, I am trying to do a tutorial a day so see what I can come up with.

The first one I decided to do was transforming a face onto a gnarly tree tutorial .  I like the whole "Green Man" lore, so I thought I would start there.  However, I wanted to use my own pictures and I didn't have a picture of a tree I liked, so I used a rock wall I had taken a picture of and placed a picture of myself on it.



Ok, it's there.  I think my glasses detract from the effect however.  So I decided to practice on another one, but this time use one of the girls.  However, with using flowers I need to redo the color selected for the color and it isn't working right.  It will be a practice for another day to try this again.  

In the meantime, this is me imitating Mount Rushmore.

Buttercup Mandala

I have been trying to create a mandala a day with some of the pictures I took at the arboretum.  Today, since the weather is going from sunny to stormy, I thought I would show my Buttercup Mandala.

This is the original picture.....




A nice, rufflely buttercup.  They are just starting to really opening up in this area.  After the warm days we have had recently, they should be really making a show in the next week or two.







Here is my mandala.  I love the play of the different shades of yellow there are in the mandala.

Agave

On a recent trip to the arboretum, I took this picture of an agave and the flower stalk.  It was from last year's bloom.  But I loved the look of this huge flower stalk against the bright blue sky.  The stalk was about 9-10 feet tall.

I wish I could have seen it in bloom as it must have been magnificent with the size of the plant.
















This is the mandala I created from the picture.  It just seemed so proud and brave to be standing there in spite of the winter weather.

The blue background isn't a fill on photoshop, it is the actual blue of the sky.  

It's Becoming Spring

I had to do a photography assignment and went to J.C. Raulston Arboretum to take the pictures.  And this guy popped up to assist.  Actually, he was trying to woo a little cutie and I was interrupting the process.  But with the blue sky and the dark branches, it was just a great sight.

I hope he was successful in his endeavors after I moved on.

Sunset Mandala

This was created from a picture I took of the sunset at school when we went outside to take pictures in the waning light.

Sunset Mandala