Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Holiday Greetings... Cardinal Collage and Poinsettia Images!

This will most likely be my last post for 2011 since I'm expecting family tomorrow and will be visiting over the next few days with them. On Christmas Eve, I will be cooking dinner for them, myself, friends and cousins who live locally. For your viewing pleasure during the holiday season, here are a couple of Poinsettia images and a collage of cardinals... my favorites in winter! Wishing everyone a joyous holiday season and a healthy, happy new year.(wrote this on Dec 22nd, had difficulty posting but here it is finally... I'm sharing this on Macro Monday (Jan 2, 2012) over at Lisa's Chaos... come on over and join the fun!)

collage of images as described
Close-up of a miniature Poinsettia taken with iPhone camera, sharpened and cropped with PerfectPhoto, run through AutoPainter with Aquarell effect. Photo and paint layers blended in Iris with 35% opacity for the paint layer.

poinsettia with Happy Holiday greeting
Image taken with Nikon D7000 and Nikon 105mm macro lens at ISO 250, f/3.5, 1/60 sec. Sharpened using Topaz In Focus plug-in in Photoshop... AMAZING! Text added in Photoshop.

collage of images as described
Mr. and Mrs. Cardinal on snowy winter days. (Some of you have seen these before but I just love Cardinals in winter so here they are again, freshly put together as a collage in Picnik.)

9 comments:

  1. It's the 28th right now and on my Shutterchance blog you'll see why we're on the same page. :) Your cardinals are the best!

    Enjoy your holidays, Victoria. Take time for yourself and give yourself some pampering. In case I don'rt see you before, Happy New Year.

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  2. Hi Victoria, thanks for visiting my blog and thanks for your thoughtful comment! I am sorry about the house sparrows, sounds like a real plague. Your poinsetta images are gorgeous as are the cardinals! I see you like to play with filters - so do I. I enjoy working with Topaz Adjust 4, am getting some really painterly effects with the Smooth and Flat filter - but you have to be careful not to overdo it. Anyway I hope you have a wonderful and productive 2012!

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  3. Beautiful photos. Tory! I really love the cardinals! I hope your stay in Red Lodge is a pleasant one and a good start to a great new year!

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  4. Happy Christmas Victoria. A true study in red.

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  5. It's beautiful and your cardinal are awesome!

    Macro Monday

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  6. Awesome photos. The Poinsettia is gorgeous and those Cardnial shots are amazing.
    Happy New Year!

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  7. Wonderful holiday shots here. I wish some cardinals would visit my backyard. The only cardinals I see around here are the Stanford Cardinals. Sadly, they suffered a heartbreaking loss in the Fiesta Bowl yesterday.

    Happy New Year, Victoria!

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  8. Happy New Year (a little late!) to you! I've been feeling like I've been drowning the last couple of weeks and haven't kept up with returning comments like I normally do. The photos of the cardinals. I haven't seen as many as normally do at feeders this winter, not sure why.

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  9. I love the collage of the cardinals. Very well done.

    Hope you had a lovely holiday Victoria and wishing you much happiness in the new year!

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Thanks so much for stopping by... I try to return all visits and appreciate yours greatly.