Sunday, October 28, 2007

Fall Pictures

Here in the Plumas National Forest, fall is here in a BIG way. Actually, it's more accurate to say that Indian Summer is here, instead. Smoke from the fires has drifted all the way up here to northern California but the weather has been VERY nice, of late.
The fall colors have been outstanding and here's a few examples. This one below is a bushy Pacific Dogwood (Cornus nutallii). <----------Brain sludge from my college days.


The West also has showy maples of their own. The Bigleaf Maple (Acer macrophyllum) is a common tree along streams and rivers in the pacific northwest. Both these hardwood trees grow in the understory of the larger conifers like Ponderosa pines and Douglas firs.


Even the old clearcut plantations are full of color with California Black Oaks in the mix, growing back as stump sprouts.


Finally, here's a bridge on an alternate route we had to take. Old and rickety, it led to a scary 4WD road back up and out of the steep canyon. We had 4 rainy days in a row when I first arrived on this assignment. All in a days work, I guess.


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Sunday, October 07, 2007

New version of Photoshop Elements

Here's the results of my first attempts in this latest version of Elements. This picture below came easily, as the techniques were the same as in the older version. I stumbled on to this colorful sky, in a blurry picture I never deleted.


I hoped there would be some more "artsy" filters but they all seem the same. I used the watercolor filter on this nice group of aspens. I kind of like the "two-toned" effect of the morning shadow.


The new selection tools are a big plus, and earning these skills takes practice. I selected only a portion of the crowns of these trees, smoothing and brightening in a subtle way. I encountered these aspen in a very interesting hidden valley just a few miles east of Mount Shasta.


Finally, here's an older picture of Burney Falls that I "posterized". It seems the sharpen and freeze the action even more. Most of that water is springwater from an underground river in the volcanic Hat Creek valley.


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