Photo Art Friday - Bokeh

Our challenge this week is as usual any piece of photo art of your choosing or a piece with "bokeh" (a Japanese term for the subjective aesthetic quality of out-of-focus areas of a photographic image).

I've decided to submit two photos this time.  The first one was taken several years ago during out trip to San Diego Wild Animal Park.  

There were only the usual editing done on this photo.

I took this next photo a couple of days ago in my backyard, after reading "8 Things You Didn't Know Your DSLR Could Do"...I did learn a few extra things and some my camera will not do (which is a bummer).  What I did learn was doing "custom settings" on my camera.  So I did a little adjustment and went outside to try it out...

The changes I made in my custom settings were to balance for a truer color, sharpness, basically to have to do less post processing.  But as you can see in this photo I did some fun editing as well.  I edited it in PicMonkey using "focal zoom" then I added Bonnie's new FREE texture "soft light overlay" and "light blue painterly" (another freebie).  Then I added a slight vignette around the whole photo.  The "soft light overlay" added the "bokeh" in this photo, it is very light.

If you want to join in on the fun click on the button below...or if you'd just like to check out what other photographers/artists have come up with.

Capture Life!

The Do eDition

How time flies...it's already Texture Tuesday with Kim Klassen.  I was so unprepared for this weeks challenge.  Our challenge is "Do" and/or using Kim's fabulous free (yes, I said free) texture "Autumn Burst".  I had to look in my archives for a photo to use.

Several years ago, we went to San Diego's Wild Animal Park on vacation.  I had just gotten my Nikon DSLR camera a few months before our vacation.  So needless to say, I was still learning the ins and outs of it.  As we were approaching to turn in to the parking lot (sitting in traffic) I leaned out of the car and snapped this photo.  It's a hot air balloon that's in the park, that you can ride up in to see the whole area.  Unfortunately, during our time there it got really windy and that ride was shut down.  Anyway here's my entry for this weeks challenge.

Run mouse over image to see the before photo

This image spoke to me (for this challenge) "Do reach for the sky".  I also loved this quote and thought it was fitting for the image and for our challenge.

I used Kim Klassen's Autumn Burst blending mode Hardlight at 83%.

I've been Published!

A few weeks ago, I received an email asking my permission to "possibly" use one of my photos in the 8th Annual Schmap San Diego Guide (an online publication which is down loadable) from a trip that we went on to the San Diego Wild Animal Park. They have a panel that chooses which pictures will be used. I was absolutely shocked and thrilled and of course said "Yes"!

So the other day I received another email announcing they did choose my photo, along with others, for their publication. Yea! Wooo....hooo....Yippeeee! O.k., so I'm a little excited, but mostly very honored to have one of my photos chosen.

Here is the photo they are using and the link too. The Wild Animal Park is so worth going to as well.

There are a lot of talented photographers whose pictures were chosen. To see them just click on my picture and it will take you to the guide.

Happy Summer!

San Diego - Wild Animal Park Vacation

Our family went down to San Diego (officially Escondido), California to visit the Wild Animal Park for Spring Break. Let me just say one word about the park..."Awesome". It's 14,000 acres of just beautiful foliage, animals, and lots of artistic ironworks, murals, and shops.

Initially, I wanted to do the "Savanna Safari Africa", it's a 50 minute ride aboard a 10 person safari cart for an up close personal look at the animals. You get to feed the giraffes! But the tickets were a little steep for our budget at the time. So we did the most economy version (which was still great), you got to ride a tram around part of the park and hear about all the animals (photo stops) and see most of their habitats. It was very beautiful and educational. Also you were able to just walk around the whole park and take in all its beauty.

We were there from 11:00am til closing at 7:00pm. It takes all day to see it all.

We were fortunate enough to have visited right after the births of a "cheetah" and an "elephant". They were so cute! Can you believe that baby elephant wasn't even a month old! Amazing!

The gorillas were a riot what fun it was watching them.

All the animals are in their own natural habitat. Each one keeps their instincts by way of smelling the other animals throughout the park. Like I said it's really cool and very informative.

I would highly recommend taking your family to this gorgeous vacation spot.

Our hotel we stayed in was awesome as well...Harrah's Rincon. The pool was just gorgeous and heated which was great. The people and staff were nice too. We were only about 20 miles from the Wild Animal Park as well.

We wanted to spend one day at the beach, but it rained on that day....shucks...I miss the ocean.

I hope you enjoy just some of the pictures I took while we were there. If anyone else has been there I'd love to hear what you thought of the place too!