Canon PowerShot SX10is – Daffodil Hill Photography

My Downsized Recent Photo Project

The last several days have found me hastily finishing up a project for my work. I work in the fundraising arm of a Joint Commission-accredited nonprofit hospice organization. I volunteered to give some of my pictures/ photo-art as part of an auction at an upcoming fundraiser. I started out wanting to have the pieces made into metal photos and canvas photos but with The Bride getting laid off and her starting nursing school full-time, well I had to downsize my goals. I talked to the lady in charge of the event, my manager’s boss, and told her what I was up to: I would use frames, ink and photo-paper from our thrift shop, with my stuff, as a part of the auction. She was very supportive, and as always very positive, in my change of plans due to the changes in our life. Some times you just have to downsize your plans yet still give none the less. So here are the photos I used in this project.

Down Time Part 2

I was enjoying my down time yesterday I did find my ability to get a decent macro somewhat frustrating. But with my companion Butterfly and a backup camera, my Canon Powershot SX10is, it really was not problematic. One thing in hindsight is bees are not great posers. They are well busy you know and cannot be bothered with the paparazzi. I was able to get a few decent shots at the long end of the zoom on the Canon of a couple of wasps, my companion Butterfly and one of the views from my court side seat to nature yesterday.

Changing Of The Guard

From season to season there is always a changing of the guard in my neck of the woods. The wind and the air may feel different and subtle to some but the visual evidence is more compelling than anything.

Two Flavors Of The Same

I love old barns. Just do and always have. I really do not know why but I do know barns, though they may look the same, have a different mental feel to me that differentiates one from another. Now maybe you can track with the title of this post. So here are two barns or two flavors of the same.

A Cat On A Hot Tin Roof

This is a drive-by capture I took a few years back, in December of 2012, with my Canon Powershot SX10is of a cat 0n a hot tin roof.

Another One Using PerfectEffects 8

Sometime back I posted two photos I took and post-processed by using freeware by onOne Software called PerfectEffects 8. At that time I was having computers issues and needed something to post since the issues were cutting into my picture-taking time. Not so this time, it is a new routine The Bride and I have begun as we pursue stress reducing activities and one is regular exercise. Stress will always be with us so we are using exercise, more working together on meal planing and a push to downsize our stuff as a way combat stress. Not that we have any more stress than the next person but it is a constant force in this life and one must find a way to deal with it. Since she is now unemployed and is attending college, now seemed like a good time as any to jump out of the frying pan into the fire. So until I can get out in this weekend and get some new stuff I will post a few of photos I have taken and fiddled more than usual in the post-processing side and some from the way-back-files.

I did the effects on the top photo several weeks back and it is one of the first pictures I used layers on in post-processing. Do not ask me to explain layers: I was just clicking icons and seeing if what I did looked cool. I did convert this to B&W using PerfectEffects 8 and layered on some HDR effects to bring a little flavor to its coolness. The bottom photo is the unedited capture I took with my canon SX10is. I hope you enjoy both (Click on each to enlarge).

Two Photo Merges

Today I am going to act upon a suggestion from Nelson @ A few images, frozen in time and tell you about the software I use on my photos. I use Corel PaintShop Pro X6 because several years ago I got a copy of PaintShop X4 on closeout and two years later I was able to upgrade to X6 just as cheaply.

I use a simple one click photo fix that allows me to sharpen, brighten and adjust shadows and highlights from one place. I like this option since I do not like fiddling with my photos much. Why? I kind of like them as they are but sometimes you just need to give them a little love. Just saying. On the two below photos I used PaintShop’s HDR photo merge and took them with my Canon SX10is. As some of you know I am just getting into DSLR’s but used the Canon because it has an Auto Exposure Bracketing (AEB) mode where my more expensive DSLR’s do not…..lesson here is if you want to do HDR check the camera you are looking at for this function (AEB). You can do this manually but so far my results, read here stuff I like, is better served with the AEB mode. I use a simple approach at this time and choose one of the six defaults PaintShop presents. I hope that helps anyone looking at getting into HDR even if just as a way t0o express oneself artistically. I hope you enjoy these two photo merges.