Fractalius Friday!

It’s Friday!   Time a fractalius flower!  One of my favorite artistic plug-ins from Redfield.  Still no filter for the Mac.  I have to use an old PC with the filter on it and transfer files…oh the fun!   Hopefully one day they will jump on the Mac bandwagon!

Fractalius Fire

I was watching the Green Bay vs Eagles football game last nite and I had just put on a log.  The flames grew and I looked over at it and said…hey, I have never taken a fire photo!    I set my tripod up for some HDR’s.  I processed a few..yikes!  They were weird wacky trippy pics!!   So I grabbed one of the exposures and thought why not fractalius it!    I think many of us are having fires going these days at nite….it is even cold in Texas!  =)   Stay warm!

Happy Halloween!!

Only 5 days til Halloween…so here is a spooky fractalius photo to get you ready!  If you have kids or are a kid…have a great time Trick-or-Treating!!   Have a ghostly good time!   For the shot above…a skull I bought for $5 at a local store with an added texture, then a touch of fractalius.  Save some Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups for me!   My favorite candy!   Hope the Great Pumpkin pays you a visit!

Austin, Texas – Mayfield Park – Peacock

We have a few cute little parks in Austin, Texas.  This one is called Mayfield Park.  Here you can find some small ponds with water lilies and lots of dragonflies.  What this park is famous for are the 20 or so peacocks that live here!  I took a morning off recently and drove up to the park.  It was my first visit.  I was amazed to see so many peacocks all over!  In trees, walking around, sleeping in the grass!  I only noticed 1 or 2 with feathers and I asked a worker and he told me it was offseason as they lose there feathers at this time.  I had hoped to catch a peacock with its feathers spread wide and proud.  No luck.  My only choice was close up shots.  These dudes are used to people….it was pretty easy.  I added a little Fractalius to this guy for a cool effect!

I checked the website and found this info…I’ll head back in late February!

• Winter – The long tail feathers grow out on the adult males.
• Late winter/Spring – The peacocks start fanning their tails to court the females. This starts around February and continued throughout the spring.
• Spring – Peahens will sit on their nest of eggs.
• Late Spring/early summer – The peachicks hatch.
• Summer – The peacocks loose their long tail feathers (July/early August)
  

  
  

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina – Brookgreen Gardens (Fractalius)

Finally…a shot I have always wanted to try!!!!   The American Bald Eagle is the symbol is the United States of America.   I have always seen shots form other people and was hopeful one day to get mine!  We were in Myrtle Beach for vacation and I had wanted to visit the famous Brookgreen Gardens.  I will post am HDR shot and tell you more details soon.   At Brookgreen there is a small zoo.  I noticed they had Bald Eagles on the list!  Nice!  We arrived and they were in a netted enclosed area.  Ugh!  Tough to shoot through nets!   Then I noticed a hole about 3-4 inches in diameter on the front face of the net (there on purpose)…maybe for people to take photos??  I stuck my big Nikon 70-200 though it (hoodless as it would not fit with the hood)…perfect!  They had a male and female hanging out and I snapped away!!   I love Fractalius and couldn’t wait to see how it would work with a bald eagle! A little photoshop fun…and a cool shot!!  Fractalius is one awesome plug in for photoshop!!  For some reason I always feel so sad for zoo animals…I know they are fed and kept safe, but these magnificent birds should be flying free.

Fractalius Ferns

A little photoshop fun Friday!  I was at Westcave Preserve yesterday in Austin (post and HDR’s coming soon).  By the waterfall there are these wonderful little ferns.  I took this shot knowing that after using the Fractalius Plug-In…they would look cool!    I have downloaded them to my website and added a few colored versions….blue, red, yellow, pink and green available now for IPad wallpapers/prints (link to the right).  All colors look cool!  This is the Turquoise version.

Speaking of Photoshop…CS5 has shipped…I get my copy (maybe today??).  I cannot wait to use the “Content Aware” option!  Look for a review soon!  Have a great one!

Fractalius Fun

A litte photoshop fun time!  One of my favorite cool plug in’s is called Fractailus by Redfield-Plugins.  It is wonderful for flowers, animals, some people or whatever you heart desires.  The only sad thing is that it did not transfer to my MAC.  I do not think there are version for the MAC…so I use my old PC to process it.  Here is the original shot…

Very cool.  I took this photograph with Fractalius in mind.  Go out and have fun…art could just be out in your yard or at the local park!  Enjoy!  I’ll skip the settings due to multiple pics. Have fun!

Fractalius: Bird

NIKON D300, Nikon 18-200 VR, Fractalius (Plug In)

Here is a post I call Fractalius Fun!  I have posted a few photos before using this plug in…this is one of my favorites.   The plug in is produced by Redfield.  I posted the Las Vegas sign, a flower and a ballon using this plug in.  Flowers and Animals seem to be the best subjects.  But with photography feel free to experiment and you may find something new and exciting!   I took the bird photo and blacked out the background.  Then applied the plug in.  Black background using Fractalius gives the effect some strength.  One of my goals is to someday shoot an eagle…I would imagine this majesctic animal would be perfect for a Fractalius effect!   Enjoy!

Las Vegas, Nevada

NIKON D300, Nikon 18-200 VR, Fractalius Plug in

Here is the last of my Vegas posts for a while.  This was one of the final shots I took on our visit.   For those who dont know where the Vegas sign is located – it is on the strip about 1/2 mile after Manadalay Bay Hotel as you are leaving Vegas – in the middle of the section of the road.  There is a little island where you can stop and there are about 10 parking spots.  There you can get out and take this photo!  I went early that morning and set up my tripod.  I tried many different angles and even some HDR’s.  All came out ok…this one using the Fractalius plug in for Photoshop was my favorite. 

I took a bunch of pictures for other people while setting up.  Its always nice to take a picture for families or couples.  So if you see someone setting up a tripod and think they might know something about cameras…go ahead and ask them to take a shot for you!  I am sure they dont mind.   Unless they look grumpy!  Remember the pictures you happen to take in Vegas, dont have to stay in Vegas!

Fractalius Flower Fun

NIKON D300, NIKON 105 VR, Photoshop – Fractalius

Here is a picture I took at the Bellagio Hotel 2 weeks ago.  You may ask how it was done?  Easy!   Fractalius.  Its a plug in for many of the post processing software used for photographs.  I use Photoshop CS3.   Plug ins are filter additions to your current software.  You can purchase them and add them into your workflow.   I saw this plug in one day on a friends web site…I was amazed!   I wanted to get it!  You can also… www.redfieldplugins.com is the website.  $39.90 for the program.  Easy download and install. 

I’ve tried it on many photographs….seems as though flowers and animals are the best!    Here is a bird you can see for reference on my web site…  http://talkephotography.com/p163430339/h23016323#h23016323  Its very cool!    A dream shot for me one day would be to get a closeup of an american eagle…then use Fractalius. 

As for this shot….you can play around with the settings on Fractalius and get many different versions/styles.  I loved the composition of this shot.  The flower all by itself, and the deep green background (looks like green flames) creates a wonderful color flow!    With this software you can have lots of fun.  Hope you enjoy!