South Harbor Marina, Skidaway Island-Lensbaby Images-Texture Tuesday

I love my Lensbaby lenses, but I don't use them as much as I should. One day this past summer, I attached the Composer optic to my DSLR, a simple lenses configured on a ball and socket design and set out on my walk down to our neighborhood marina. By tilting the lens at different angles, one can choose the "sweet spot" focus with a beautiful blur surrounding this small area of relative sharpness. Below are the fruits of my labor. All photos were processed in Rad Lab with various textures from Kim Klassen and Flypaper Textures. The top photo of the marina dock is my contribution to Texture Tuesday, the Dream eDition.

Champignons Triptych

Original image on left, center image (screenshot below) and final black and white image processed in

Topaz BW Effects utilizing a coffee dynamic filter, some subtle grain, a slight vignette applied, and lastly, a thin black border. Texture French Receipts Overlay and Paper Textures from Flypaper Textures.

Savannah Scenes-Digital Infrared Photography

Several years ago, I had my Canon D60 converted to Digital Infrared using a company called LIfe Pixels. On their website is a wealth of information on what cameras can be converted, filter choices, tutorials and galleries of beautiful IR photography. I was fortunate to be able to take Better Photo Class from Deborah Sandidge, an expert on Digital IR and author of Digital Infrared Photography, the definitive book on the subject. 

Shown here are a few of my favorites from around the Savannah, Georgia area where I now live. If you are interested in a different kind of photography, I suggest you check out the links in the above paragraph. Digital IR photography has opened up a new world for me. 

My Lovely Granddaughters

Seagulls on Wassaw Island

Palm Grove Ft. Pulaski

Burned Out Shrimp Boat-Justin Bradley

Colonial Park Cemetery Wall

From Above-Beyond Layers Day 77

I wish I could say I have kept up with blogging on this photo-per-diem site, but I seem to have let it slide. Hopefully, this post will create a new surge in creativity for me.  I photograph everyday whether it's with my DSLR, my point and shoot, my iPhone or with my old film camera, but I don't document them everyday as I should.

Day 77 of Beyond Layers with Kim Klassen has us shooting images from above which seems to be in thing these days with food and still life photography. I've just recently bought a horizontal adapter for my tripod which is an extremely useful adapter for shooting from above.  Here are a few of my images shot from above.

 Apples-iPhone

 Fresh Figs-Canon 5D-Mark 11

Peaches-Canon 5D-Mark 11

 Sea Island Dried Peas-Canon 5D-Mark 11

 Grilled Vegetable Noodle Bowl- iPhone

Some of my Pottery Collection-Canon 5D-Mark 11

Cannon Firing-Ft Pulaski, Savannah and a Strange Orb Appearance

 Cannon Firing-Digital Infrared-Sean Duggan Effect-Kim Klassen Textures

View of Tybee Roads from Ft. Pulaski-Sean Duggan Effect-Kim Klassen Textures

A strange orb-like thing appeared on the photo of the cannon firing. Look in between the brackets to see this oddity.I would not have thought it strange, but when photographing the cannon firing, I had my camera set on continuous shooting so I wouldn't miss the fire coming out of the cannon. This strange thing only appeared on one of my photos. Is it a ghost? I have no idea, but it's truly puzzling.

This is my entry in Texture Tuesday-The Look-Down eDition.

Tybee Island on Dwellable

Burnside River Palm

I love photographing palm trees and I'm very fortunate that there are several beautiful palms in my neighborhood that overlook the Burnside River, part of the Intercoastal Waterway (ICW). I used my iPhone and the Pro HDR app which enables one to shoot two photos, one exposing the highlights and one exposing the shadows. It's imperative, however, that you keep the camera still. To achieve this handheld with the iPhone or any smart phone, use two hands to hold the device and bring your arms in as close to your body as possible. After shooting the image, I uploaded it to my computer and in photoshop added three different layers of texture from Kim Klassen's watercolor set with some of the textures brushed away from the grass and palm tree.

Texture Tuesdays-Not Necessarily Textured eDition- Wassaw Island

Nearly every weekend in the summer, we take the boat over to Wassaw Island, a barrier island near Savannah. This unspoiled beach offers many photographic opportunities. This image  was shot with my iPhone and the Pro HDR app which allows one to shoot two photos, one which exposes for the shadows and one for the highlights. The two images combined offer a more complete exposure. After shooting the image, I used a filter inside the app to enhance the scene.

This is my entry in Kim Klassen's Not Necessarily Textured eDition of Texture Tuesday, a sort of anything goes theme.