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.