Red Tree super-imposed over the Central Park West cityscape

Did you ever wish you could make up your own landscape? Painters do it all the time. They might take some mountains from one place and a lake from somewhere else and paint them together to create their own Shangri-La. I used to paint — back when computers were practically non-existent and I was a budding artist at the High School of Music & Art in NYC in the early 70′s.  I painted landscapes in oil on canvas. I was ok, but not destined for greatness as a fine artist so I traded in my paint brushes for a career in graphic design. It’s a way to earn a living, while still being creative, but sometimes I still get the itch to create just for myself.

Now with a digital camera and Adobe PhotoShop CS4, I can once again use my imagination to create new landscapes (and seascapes for that matter) right on my computer. I can add my own touch to nature!

How do I do this? I use the layers palette  in PhotoShop CS4 to combine the two photographs that were used to make up the finished image above. Each photo gets its own layer. The photo with the red tree is on the base layer and the buildings on Central Park West are on a layer above. I then add a layer mask to “reveal all” to the buildings layer. Now, making sure that I have the layer mask selected on the layers palette, I use the paintbrush to brush away the parts of the buildings photo that I don’t want. I adjust the opacity of that layer to give the photo a more distant look and making the red tree layer pop more. By using layer masks instead of the eraser tool to get rid of unwanted parts of an image,  my original images are untouched so that if I need to go back and add parts back in I can. When I get the composition the way I want it, and after I have saved the PSD file, I then flatten the final image and save as a tiff, a png or jpg file and I am done.

The above image is available for purchase at my Dive Art & More gallery

Below are the two original images that I used:

Photograph of a red-leafed tree in autumn

Central Park West with the Central Park Lake in the foreground

Curves of Garlic

Every season has it’s share of natural beauty.  The fall, known for its vibrant colors shows off the brilliant beauty of the trees before losing their glorious coats as well as the  wonderful earthy hues of autumn’s harvest.

During my visit upstate last weekend I found some really beautiful colors and shapes at a farm stand that I visited. The green curves made by the stems of garlic that lay displayed in a basket caught my attention, as did a display of multi-colored squash in all different shapes and sizes. Deep purple peppers with their green stems resting in a basket along side the better know red and yellow ones, made a still life worthy of an artist.

Squash of Different Colors

Purple Pepper

Canon G-11I have been waiting to upgrade my current point and shoot camera for quite a while. I have a Canon SD700 Digital Elph camera which I have been very happy with -- up to a point. In addition to using it for snapshots I also put it into an underwater housing and take it diving with me. Here's where it falls short of my expectations. While I can get some pretty good photos and color using the custom white balance feature I find that when shooting either up from below or towards white sand or coral, I tend to get a pink fringe. I also get some pink noise. I'd love to shoot underwater and get pictures that would be photo magazine worthy! I'm not ready to spring for an SLT with alls the bells and whistles and expensive housings required to shoot like a pro but I do think there is a happy compromise. I have always loved Canon's cameras. Their optics as well as their design have always been superb.

I’ve been waiting for Canon to introduce the next version of their G Series and it seems that come September the G11 will be available. I read about this new camera on Dive Photo Guide. Here is a link to the article by Matt J. Weiss.

This camera sounds like just what I’ve been looking for, now all I need is the green stuff to buy it. I want it! I was hoping that I would have won the Mega Millions Lottery last night in which case I wouldn’t think twice about ordering it as well as the underwater housing for it as soon as it comes out. Now I guess I will start saving my dollars for a few months and hopefully can pick one up soon. Of course, if anyone wants to send me a gift (LOL) I wouldn’t turn it down!

If you’d like to see some of my underwater photography go to my Imagekind Online Gallery