New Additions

New additions to my Dreamy Nature collection are now available to view/buy in my Red Bubble Store, all the new additions have had textures added from the Flypaper Collection as mentioned in my last post.

Flypaper Textures

Just lately I have been noticing more and more on Flickr the mention of Flypaper Textures being used on images, so I decided to check them out. There are three sets to choose from Tex Box One, Tex Box Two and a new addition Fly Edges. Having looked, I couldn't help myself! I bought Tex Box One and in my opinion the set is superb, a wonderful collection of subtle textures. My favourite of the set would have to Apple Blush (used on the image below). All the files are large and high quality. Tex Box One and Two are $35 each for a download and the Fly Edges set is $40. CD's can be sent at a small additional cost. Currently if you buy sets one and two together you can purchase the download for a special price of $65.

On the website you can also find some tutorials for getting the best out of your textures.

Delicate Duo, click image to view larger

Fabulous France

For those of you following me on Flickr you will know that I have been busy uploading my many images taken from my travels around France last year. My trip was split between the Loire Region and The Midi-Pyrénées which is the largest region in France. This area is truly spectacular, there are so many places to see, each one more breathtaking than the last. Some of my favourite shots are now available to buy via my Red Bubble Store. If you would like to see more of this region, click here and view the film.




One of my favourite places Saint-Cirq-Lapopie

Top Marks :o)

Last week at my local Camera Club we held our last internal competition of the season. It was 'open subject' so the images submitted were many and varied. I, as usual, had difficulty prior to the event deciding what to choose for submission (the decision making involved in selection nearly drives me round the twist as I have real trouble in making up my mind, nothing ever seems good enough to me) but in the end opted for two of my Alberta landscapes in the prints section. I was convinced they wouldn't do so well, but was hugely honoured and pleased when the judge awarded top marks for my 'Autumn on the Parkway' shot and better still I came second too with Spirit Island. For me the highest praise from the judge (well respected in our area) was the fact he said would love to hang the Icefields Parkway shot on his wall.

Autumn on the Parkway (Click image to view larger)


Spirit Island (Click image to view larger)

Vintage Addiction

...And here's me thinking that colour was my only vice! Since discovering the wonderful 'Hand Coloured Vintage Photo Action' by mutato-nomine that I mentioned a few posts back I have been completed addicted to testing it out on all manner of images. I thought I might share one of my favourites to date. You can click on the image to view the larger version. And if you haven't checked out these actions yet you can download them here. I can't promise this is the last time I will speak about this!!!....Twitch!

Stonehurst Cove, Blue Rocks, Nova Scotia (View the original here)

Butterfly Brushes

A while back I created a butterfly brush set for personal use and forgot all about them, (example of the brushes below). I thought others may like to use them. You can download the file here. The file is zipped and comes complete with installation instructions for Photoshop. Enjoy! I hope you find them useful!

Brushtastic

So today I was trawling around the net looking for PS Brushes, several tangents and a couple of hours later I came across a couple of really good sets. (Not what I was looking for I might add), but having found them I couldn't pass up the opportunity to give them a go and see what effects I could achieve.

For my 'Tiny Dancer' image featured here I combined the 'Hand Coloured Vintage Photo' action from the other day with a Dandelion Seed Brush by Redheadstock) and several different brushes from an Old Letter Collection (by Shiranui). (Just click on the named links to go straight to the respective download pages).

Just in case you are not sure how to install a PS Brush file:

Copy the file to the correct directory. If you downloaded the brush set in a zip file, you can just extract the 'abr' file straight to the right place.

The directory you are looking for will be in your Adobe folder under presets then brushes, example path below:

C:\Program Files\Adobe\Photoshop CS1\Presets\Brushes\

Simply copy the file there, and the next time you start Photoshop, the brushes will be available from your brush set menu. If you don't want to restart the application to try out your new brushes, click on the brush tool in Photoshop, then load brushes (see ref picture, click to enlarge).