Beach Dreams

My friend with the beach house on Long Beach Peninsula requested house portraits for a charity auction in the fall.  Since I love sneaking celestial bodies into photos whenever I can, I got up early to snap shots from the front of the place showing the setting moon just above the roof line.  They just had their shake siding cleaned and added the pretty blue iron gate out front.  

This view is likely more suitable for the listing for the charity auction.

I like this view, though, because it shows the front porch and garden.

Clearing Mist

Was browsing and reading articles recently about art and seeing and found this image.  It reminded me of photomontages Carol Leigh has taught me to do in her online classes.  I wondered if I could capitalize on the inspiration I felt seeing this art to make my own.  Should be a piece of cake to translate, thinks moi.

Ha!  Read on....

I picked a photo of a scruffy piece of rusty metal as background, a Lost and Taken free texture, a photo I took at Fort Stevens or Fort Columbia last year of tall trees, a cloud photo from the tons of cloud photos I make all the time, and photo of a bald eagle. 

 Took a bit of experimenting to settle on these photos and to find the best combination of blending modes. As you can see, it's a completely different feel from the inspiration piece but still qualifies as art, I think!

Blue and Yellow Window

Every time I visit my friend's beach house I wonder how to make this window a photo composition.  Here's a first attempt.

It's clear the green background is a distraction to the glass pieces in the window.  Now that I'm writing this, I can see shorter depth of field would be in order for the next time I shoot it.

I tried out one of the film settings in Topaz to give kind of an Old World look to the composition (in spite of the the modern lobster popup toy and the plastic keyring).  Not sure it's THE thing for this composition but it's an experiment.

Perhaps another thing to try when reshooting is a slight pop of flash.  I never use flash, though, so I'm not sure it would work here.  Perhaps I'll stash a medium sized white reflector in my photo travel bag now for my next trip.

Then, I'll pray to the Washington Coast Weather Gods for sunlight through the side window of this room on my next visit!

Dog Happy At The Beach

Ok, I know this photo is on grass but it's one of my favorite photos from this weekend at the beach in Seaview.  Hugh and I and Maggie all dug the beach house with it's completely fenced yard.  The first morning there, Maggie and I played stick and ball games in the grass--get this--in the SUN!  Great fun!