So much of life, it seems to me, is determined by pure randomness.
~~Sidney Poitier
Every now and then I like to take my camera and just take photos at home. I try to challenge myself into getting some good shots out of commonplace, everyday life.
It's also interesting to look back a few years later to see what life was like.
Apparently my home life in 2014 was dominated by my two rescue kitties. Or maybe it's just that they are such beautiful, fun, loving creatures, that I can't help but take photos of them when they're attending to their kitty lives.
This my Chavy. He's weird, but I love him.
Handsome closeup. He loves to pet his own face. No human can do it according to his standards.
I like this shot. Sometimes its okay to not have the complete subject in focus. Here, I focused on the feather that Chavy was playing with to illustrate that the photo is still interesting and the "focus" is still on Chavy.
This is another shot that I used an effect to enhance it. The photo from the outline of the sliding glass door to the right of Chavy all the way to the left is not edited at all. But there were a couple of things on my patio that ruined the shot, including a dirty gas can.
In Photoshop Elements 11, I selected the area inside the window pane and used an adjustment filter with gradient to black out everything on the patio while still maintaining the photographic look and drawing the attention away from the bright red and back to my cute subject.
Another closeup, but this time I cropped in closer to put the emphasis on his paw as he pets himself.
This is a kitty friend that lived right beside our parking spaces. He LOVED Adie's car and would lay on it at all times. When she wasn't home, he would sit on the stairs or the sidewalk, but never another car.
I wanted to keep everything shades of grey, but the window was reflecting and the underside of the stairs was brown. Again, I selected the areas that had reflections or other color tones and applied a gradient filter to them.
Oddly enough, the cat looks kind of weird, as if I accidentally selected part of him and included him in the gradient map. I assure you I did not. It was just the part of him that was shadowed by the overhang. I actually tried to fix it, but it was very stubborn. lol
These are the gorgeous blossoms on the tree that overhangs the balcony.
Speaking of the balcony, we had hummingbird and finch feeders which actually enticed a lot of our feathered friends. This is not a good picture but I was always to slow to get a picture or had to go get my camera and missed it. lol
However, using a "Sin City" affect in Photoshop Elements 11, I was able to get enough definition in the photo, even shooting through a dirty window and a screen.
Sin City is an effect that I love to use. It's basically keeping only one or two colors in a photo.
And now, MOAR Cats! These photos were taken on a very sunny day and my boys were loving laying on the cat tree in the sun. The bright, yet indirect light made for some very good shots.
"I have been meditating on the very great pleasure which a pair of fine eyes in the face of a pretty [cat] can bestow." ~~ Mr. Darcy "Pride and Prejudice"
These two love this cheap lei that I bought at the Dollar Store.
They only play with the red, white, and blue ones though.
My patriotic kitties.
Ellie vetoes my kiss. haha
In this photo, you can see that pesky red gas can in the background...if you look for it. I used the Sin City effect again to give color only to Chavy and the cat tree.
Baby is getting tired of me taking pictures of him.
Occasionally, as on this day, the camera becomes his play/prey.
I'm going to finish with two different iterations of the same photo to illustrate how the different filters/effects can alter a photo.
We'll start with Chavy's scary claws in Lomo effect from Photoshop Elements II intermediate.
Now the same photo with a gradient filter.
It's hard, once again, for me to say which one I like better.
I would probably choose the Lomo because it brings the ball and the claws into focus. And it's a bit easier to use.
But the bottom line is that editing effects are endless, not just with Photoshop, but there are other good software choices as well, such as Pixlr.
The fun of photography doesn't have to end once you put down the camera!
xoxo
