Valfal's photos

Saturday Self-Challenge: Post-processing Last Sunday and Monday, I had the pleasure of taking a short trip to Ocean City, Maryland and Assateague/Chincoteage Islands. We came across this herd While we were on the road. The ponies were beautiful, but the mosquitoes were awful! More information about this amazing place: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chincoteague_Pony I used PicMonkey to process this image: Automatic exposure - Shadows: -20, Rotated 0.76, Used Urbane effect. The unprocessed version of this image is in the note. Have a great weekend everyone! Hugs to Marie-claire and Pam!

Saturday Self-Challenge: Use the edge of an image to "cut" your subject in half" (subject can be anything.) Autumn is beginning to show itself where I live, so I thought it appropriate to use a pumpkin as my subject. Have a wonderful weekend, everyone! A special hug to Pam and Marie-claire!

Light shining on and through the leaves of a Japanese maple last spring.

Saturday Self-Challenge: Photograph something in the shape of a cube. I had other more creative ideas for this challenge, but due to time constraints and other technical difficulties I went for more conventional antique blocks. Have a great week everyone! Hugs to Pam and Marie-claire!

Macro Mondays 2.0: Folds This week I was spoiled for choices! Eventually I settled on using an old dress worn by one of my antique dolls. I love the details of the lace and intricate folds of the cotton. Have a great week, everyone!

Saturday Self-Challenge: Fast shutter Speed So sorry for the late entry, but it was a challenge to get the time I wanted to experiment. Figuring out how I was going to clearly demonstrate the effects of fast shutter speed was my other challenge. The result is this humble submission. I really liked experimenting with the faster speed, and I will keep practicing! Have a wonderful weekend, friends, and a great Labor Day holiday to my fellow Americans!

Macro Mondays 2.0: Clips of Any Sort Various paper clips playfully arranged. Have a good week ahead! :-)

Saturday Self-Challenge: Planned Over-Exposure I wish I had more time this week to play around with this interesting concept. Of all the photos I took, there were two I couldn't decide on, but eventually chose the less "conventional" of the two. I love the abstract impressionism of Japanese art, and this is what the image above reminded me of. The other photo is in the note. Have a wonderful weekend, everyone! Big Hugs to Marie-claire and Pam! *Thank you so much for your comments and faves, they are most appreciated! :-))*

Saturday Self-Challenge: Take a photo through a glass pane. The toughest part of this week was finding a subject interesting enough to use for the picture. It didn't help that sunlight was not in big supply whenever I had the chance to photograph something through a window. But after numerous failed attempts, I went with my first idea: to photograph this sunflower field from behind my car window. I really wanted a blue sky, but that was not meant to be. Apart from adding a frame and very basic editing, this image is pretty much how it came out of the camera. Have a great weekend, friends! Special hugs to Pam and Marie-claire xx

Saturday Self-Challenge: Deep Depth of Field This week was a bit of a challenge for me just trying to understand settings. Earlier in the week, I went to Longwood Gardens take a short tour and grab some shots of the dahlias. Their dahlias weren't quite out in full array yet, so I had to make do with some of the other attractions. I did manage to get a few good shots of other flowers and the main fountain, which at the time was putting on its afternoon show. I went home and spent the rest of the week practicing to shoot for this challenge. After some discouraging times behind the camera (I couldn't get out to find anything interesting for the rest of the week), I was going to try one more time to shoot my garden. Then I remembered the shots I took at Longwood and realized that some of them qualified for this challenge!The photo in the note is the full version of the above image. I cropped it to show you greater detail; if you look closely (enlarged on black is best), you will see people much closer to the fountains and get an idea of just how big they are! Have a good week, everyone! Hugs to Pam and Marie-claire! Thank you so very much for all your wonderful comments and likes, my friends!

Beautiful hanging flowers of a begonia seen at Longwood Gardens located in Kennett Square, PA USA.

Some beautiful flowers I cannot remember the name of that I found at Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, PA. If anyone can identify them, I would be most appreciative! :-)

Macro Mondays 2.0: White Flowers This week I was able to find something in my own flower garden to photograph. These are blooms from the white Hosta. This one is a new bloom just opening up. It was photographed early in the morning.

Saturday Self-Challenge: Shallow Depth of Field Extreme close up of one of the dahlias in my flower garden. Have a great weekend, everyone! Big hugs to Pam and Marie-claire! xx

The flower of a hosta blooming in my garden. Thank you so much for your comments and faves, everyone! Have a great weekend! :-)