Category Archives: digital art photography

The adventure begins…

September 1, 2016: Unfinished business awaits us as we begin our 2016 Camino de Santiago trek across northern Spain. We previously completed Astorga to Santiago and St. Jean Pied de Port, France to Zubiri, Spain, so it appears we have a little over 300 miles remaining. Click on the short “kick off” video as we begin our journey…

We stumble upon the Parish Church of Santa Lucia which has lived through the invasion of the Moors, the Spanish Inquisition, Napoleon’s crossing of the Pyrenees, two world wars and the Spanish Civil War.

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It is rumored to be a Templar church and symbols contained in and around the building seem to confirm this. Few records exist so piecing the building’s story together is quite a challenge ~the abbey.es

The intent was to stay in Arre tonight but we seemed to have bypassed the path through that particular town and, before you know it, we’ve gone 22 kilometers (13.6 miles) and find ourselves in downtown Pamplona. Oh, well… plan B will be just fine and we have a head start on our hike tomorrow. We settle into our little room above a small bar and rest our weary bones.

Below are today’s top three photo picks:

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Go Lancers!

Foreground image was taken in the studio  with accent lights on both sides of the face and one light to camera right. Background looked too dull and I wanted to “jazz it up” . Many hours of blood sweat and tears take place on and off the court so decided to try blending the subject with a background photo of the gym.  Still too blah…  

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I tried a haze in the background, but not enough texture for me. What to do, what to do?   Found some free smoke brushes and played around? Here is the link to the free brushes found at a site called ucreative.com. (Click on link) Made a transparency layer to apply the smoke to the background, erasing if necessary and another transparency layer on top of the image.  Go Lancers!

Lesson from a Bee

Just a thought as I found this bee hunkered down working diligently on this thistle in full bloom. Man, I’m good at growing these kind of flowering weeds!

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Image by Joyce Meyer

Sports portraits and off camera lighting

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Image by Joyce Meyer

While available light is easy to use, I don’t like how it blows out the sky when doing backlit portraits. This portrait setup involved strong sunlight as it lowered in the sky, football field light, and two Canon 580 EX II speedlights with Cyber-sync radio triggers. Speedlights were on both sides of the subject to outline and define his strong features at manual 1/4 and about 10 feet away from subject. Camera angle low to give the portrait a feeling of strength and size while keeping the field light in view. Canon 5D Mark 3 settings were ISO100 at 8.0 and 1/125. Post processing involved basic adjustments in Lightroom and HDR in Photoshop with a few other tweaks.

We were so fortunate to have such a beautiful evening with no wind and pleasant temps. Go Bulldogs!! Yeah, life is good…

Feeling small…

 It’s a big world out there…

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Conic Hill along the West Highland Way, Scotland. Image by Joyce Meyer

Under the prairie sun

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“We who live in quiet places have the opportunity to become acquainted with ourselves, to think our own thoughts and live our own lives in a way that is not possible for those keeping up with the crowd.”
― Laura Ingalls Wilder

Giant dandelions?

Western Salsify (T. dubius Scop.) and Meadow Salsify (T. pratensis L.) are  the most common species of this plant that looks like a giant dandelion. Western Salsify is native to Europe and Northern Africa and was brought to North America as a garden vegetable for its carrot like taproot and “oystery taste”. Since then it has spread to roadsides, old abandoned fields, no-till field, pastures and other undisturbed areas. ~ btny.purdue.edu

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Image by Joyce Meyer

Eaten raw, the roots are very bitter; fried, roasted, or boiled, the taste of salsify roots have been compared to that of parsnips. Others say they slide down like oysters, hence its common moniker, oyster plant. Cream the roots in a soup or simmer young stalks in butter for a side dish rich in Vitamin B6. ~aspoonfulofthyme.blogspot.com

I’m O.K. with parsnips, but oysters?  No thanks!!

Prairie Sun (blended with alcohol ink)

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Blended prairie image with alcohol ink tile by Joyce Meyer.

Prairie Sun

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Image by Joyce Meyer

Perpetual Astonishment…

Every spring is the only spring, a perpetual astonishment.  ~ Ellis Peters
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Image by Joyce Meyer