Play Time........Photoshop Style

For those of you who may not know, Photoshop is a program which you can use to do many graphically inspired things, including adjust photographs.  It's part of the Adobe Creative Suite of programs that I use in my office for my business Speakeasy, and also for my 'I need to create more' online business, Bates Mercantile Co.

Now, on a daily basis I work in Illustrator, another program in the creative suite, than in Photoshop, but I love learning new things in each.

Lately, I'm falling in love with 'actions' in photoshop. Basically, 'actions' take a group of actions you might use to say, adjust a photo, and records them or saves that group of tasks as one action. The results..........it saves me a lot of tweaking time to get the look I want. 

Yesterday the farmer mowed the hay field across the street, and parked his tractor overnight in front of the barn. Not his barn. The barn that goes to the house that sits in front of the field. The farmer is from down the road a bit, and leases the field to grow his hay. Just thought you should know that.

Here's the picture I took around 7:30 a.m. this morning. Love morning light.

Pretty light. Pretty colors.

But perhaps I want the picture to have a 70s vibe? Apply an action (thanks to some freebies from pioneerwoman).

Nice, huh?

Then again, I might want it too look like something from the 'Old West'. Again, apply an action (this one another from pioneerwoman).

I really like that one. Gives it a moody feel.

What if I want to give it an even older look?

I applied the vintage action. LOVE that one.

Here's another with a vintage feel.

I used the 'heartland' action for that version.

You'll find this barn in many of my sunset shots. It's just across the street and my neighbors did a fantastic restoration a couple of years ago. That makes me happy. It also makes me happy to have such a lovely subject right outside my door.

Here's a close up of the tractor.

I love pictures of things aren't just for looking at, but actually are workhorses. Pretty in it's own right, at least I think so.

Now, a tweak with the 'Old West' action again.

Very cool? Yes?

As I crossed the street to the field this morning, I looked up and spied this pair. 

Rather than an Photoshop 'action', I applied a Photoshop 'filter' to these mourning doves. 'Paint daubs'. I like the way they turned out. The one on the right really made me laugh, the way he was puffing himself up.

Another beautiful day, made even more beautiful by the fact that our nectarines are ripe. We didn't get as many as last year, but they sure are tasty and purty (sorry, just channelling my best walter brennan impersonation).

I adjusted these lovelies with the Watercolor Filter. Mmmmm.

Now, if you have photoshop, be sure to check out Pioneer Woman's free action sets! And have some fun.

Sunset Meadows

No action sets applied to these. Just a little brightness adjustment so you could see the Queen Anne's Lace better.

Mellow and pretty last night at Sunset Meadows.

From my little corner of the world to yours.....have a fantastic Tuesday.



No Shelves Today- Sunday Adventure Part 1

Great Bay

Oh the weekend......it's never long enough. The one thing on the 'to do' list, didn't get done. Nope. Still no shelves in my office. Saturday I spent weeding and in the pool since it was hot, and Gar was zonked from working in the heat. Sunday we ignored the little to do list, hopped in the car, and went in search of the buffalo farm on Great Bay.

Here's our first view of the bay as we head into the next town, Newfields, New Hampshire.

We continued into Newmarket and the mill, which has been renovated into condos, was looking beautiful against the blue sky.



I was really happy to see they've started to renovate the other mill on Main Street. It looks like they're in the process of gutting the interior. Just look at the stonework....gorgeous.

Then off of Main Street and onto a long winding country road on our way to the buffalo farm.  We were lucky to have many glimpses of the bay.

This was one big field, swooping right down to water's edge.



Then we found the road to the farm. Lots of twists and turns to the end, and lo and behold, no buffalo farm anymore. We were disappointed. I remember when I was there before, that the sight of the buffalo roaming the field and the bay in the back was really striking.  We made the best of it though, and decided to see if we could find Durham Marketplace, a small local grocer. But before we hit town, there was still more country road to travel.

This cemetery was right across from where the buffalo used to roam (sorry, couldn't resist.......how often will I be able to say that?).

Such lovely details in the iron gate. 

Just up the road a bit, this view peaking through the trees. You have to love the beauty of a working farm, though this one was pretty quiet since it was Sunday.  There were many hay bale rolls in the field, proving someone had been hard at work recently.

And our last view of the bay before we hit the center of Durham (home of the University of New Hampshire).

Tomorrow, the downtown side of our adventure. After finding a lot of good food at the marketplace we swung over to Portsmouth (don't worry, we were prepared and kept the food cold) and enjoyed art, architecture, and everything else that makes Portsmouth what it is.

Sunset Meadows

This summer has been a real show stopper here at Sunset Meadows.

Lovely purple, pink, swirly whirly clouds.

I hope you had a relaxing and enjoyable weekend in your part of the world. Did you get your to-do list done? Or did you throw caution to the wind and do something just for the fun of it? 

Have a great Monday in your corner of the world.