Claire's Images Blog

Red Barn in Winter with Sunny Skies

2011-12-05T20:37:00.001-05:00

This Barn is located very close to the road in a beautiful field with a silo in the background. I had to park in a private drive and walk on very narrow strip of side road to get this shot. The sky was very harsh and gray..so High Dynamic Range (multiple exposures) worked really well for this shot to be able to retain some of the detail in the sky. I took the 3 shots and exported them to Nik HDR

Police Car from the Andy Griffith Show

2011-09-20T19:04:00.000-04:00

I went to the Farm Fair in Brevard North Carolina a few weeks. and on the streets of downtown they had the Police Car used during the filming of the Andy Griffith Show..Right behind the car is a store named O.P. Taylor's and they carry all kinds of neat children's toys. They also have a restaurant just down the street named Mayberry..My kind of place. I have named three of my animal companions

My Favorite the Yellow Rose

2011-07-08T16:04:00.005-04:00

The Simplicity of the Perfect Yellow Rose. My Favorite.

Tall Crawl Space Rocking Chair View

2011-06-26T20:45:00.001-04:00

This is an HDR shot of the view I have from my Tall Crawl Space. I now love to go down there sit in a rocking chair and enjoy the view of this very old and large oak tree up the hill of the lot next door. I really love the impact effect the combine multiple exposures have on the blue sky.

Calm and Serene View

2011-06-24T17:28:00.009-04:00

These beautiful homes, barn and scenery make you wish you were lucky enough to live there. They are located in one of my favorite areas called Mills River in the Western North Carolina Mountains. Stay at the Tiffaney Hill Bed and Breakfast and the view of these will be free from the front porch rocking chairs. I edited this image in both Photoshop Lightroom and Photoshop CS5, and I

Davidson River in the Pisgah National Forest

2010-12-15T12:10:00.005-05:00

I love to look at the water in the rivers flowing in the mountains of North Carolina. I want to be able to replicate what my eyes are seeing in my camera, but I find it difficult to do. Its hard to capture the beauty and the relaxing feel of the flow of the water. I stopped on the side of the road on highway 276 which runs from Pisgah Forest, North Carolina to the Blue Ridge Parkway where you can

Vast and Beautiful HDR Landscape

2009-07-20T16:20:00.013-04:00

I recently spent the night at the Club at Hammock beach in Palm Coast, Florida. I spent the night with my sister and we were trying in a fifth floor condominium. There was a nice covered balcony and the views in the morning were just beautiful. So I decided to in the scenery with my camera. I took several using HDR technology where you combine photos with multiple exposures to gain a more evenly

Beautiful Gardens in North Carolina

2009-06-23T18:06:00.010-04:00

I recently returned from a trip to the Asheville North Carolina area. One of our afternoon trips was over to the North Carolina Arboretum. . We were there in early June and many flowers were in bloom and the gardens were just absolutely beautiful. The nice thing is they also allow us to bring our dogs, on a leash, picking up poop the usual rules..But it was a great place for them to walk around

HDR Sunrise Shot from the Blue Ridge Parkway

2009-05-09T16:37:00.005-04:00

I just attended a photo workshop in Pisgah Forest, North Carolina. This is just outside of Brevard, North Carolina an area in the mountains known for its many waterfalls. The workshop was for taking photos of waterfalls, but the first morning we arose very early , left the hotel at 5:30 am and drove a half an hour to the Blue Ridge Parkway where we setup our tripods and cameras to get a shot of

HDR with my Nikon D80

2009-03-25T11:54:00.004-04:00

I decided to get out this morning and setup up a shot that I could edit in photoshop cs4 using HDR(high dynamic range). The theory behind this is take photos with multiple exposures and combine them into one shot resulting in more detail in the image. You have to use the bracketing option on your camera, the D80 is limited to three exposures. I have read that you really need to have at least 5

Sports Shot Artistic Effect with Lucis Art

2008-10-30T19:43:00.012-04:00

I went to the Florida Gator-Kentucky Wildcat game in Gainesville, Florida On Saturday..I am never sure if they are going to let me through the gate with my Nikon D80, so I take my kodak point and shoot camera which has an attachable wide angle and telephone lens with it. I sit very high up in the south end zone, row 87. I took this shot when the band was on the field at pre-game and they were

Take the time to Preserve Family Memories

2008-09-20T10:28:00.012-04:00

Before AfterThis is a photograph that was taken of my grandmother and her sister, my great Aunt. Two great people. The photo had tarnished a bit through the years and had an overall yellow cast to it. Because I don't have that many photos of these family members so I decided it was worthy of restoration work using Adobe Photoshop Cs3. I would classify this restoration work as advanced..It was

Using Multiple Plug Ins to create pleasing Painterly Effect

2008-09-15T13:21:00.010-04:00

This original image was taken while I was sitting in my car at a stop sign at a busy intersection in Fletcher, North Carolina. I notice the red barn sitting slightly uphill across the street and thought I would take a quick snap shot. It was at a high sun time of day and I did not have time to set the proper settings on my camera. So it turned out to just be an average image a bit overexposed

Seagull Portrait Shot

2008-09-02T14:56:00.004-04:00

Before AfterWe drove our RV down to Ft. DeSoto Park which is in Pinellas County Florida. The city name is Tierra Verde and is located south of the St.Petersburg/Clearwater area. The park was nice but unfortunately we were there when the mosquito's wanted to feast on us and our dogs. You had to drive a mile or so from the campground to get access to the beach. I walked down the pier that was

Dull to Vivid Hibiscus Bloom

2008-08-15T16:21:00.019-04:00

I took this close up shot of a bloom on my small hibiscus tree. Its located in my side yard where I have a variety of natural light coming in throughout the day. This original color of this shot was flat and non-inspiring and you could also see the imperfections of the leafs.I first loaded this photo into Adobe Photoshop Camera Raw where I did some adjustments on the exposure, added some blacks,

Beautiful and then Sharply Beautiful

2008-07-18T15:31:00.011-04:00

Original ImageAfter Image, Sharpened and minus a few artifactsHere is a picture of my Greater Swiss Mountain Dog, Ellie..She is so naturally beautiful that its difficult to make a bad picture of her.. This photo was taken in the back yard and came out a bit dull and drab in color..So I decided to make it more vibrant by increasing saturation..I also cloned out her dog tags and the leave on top of

Family Photo Restoration

2008-07-03T20:13:00.012-04:00

This photo was taken in 1988 in the back yard of my then home in Jacksonville, Florida. Its my brother, mother and two sisters and that's my Dog Barney laying on the ground. Unfortunately we were all together because my grandmother had passed away. This is an important picture to me, it has many items that I love, my family, my pet, and it was taken in the backyard of my first home.I thought it

Washington Oaks State Park

2008-05-14T18:23:00.002-04:00

I took this shot in February as I was walking along the Matanzas River in the Washington Oaks Gardens State Park located near Palm Coast, Florida. It was getting close to Sunset and I thought there was a nice light over the water as I was approaching these benches. I thought this image might look good converted to black and white, and I was right. I created it using the new black and white