~ Please Note ~

Unless otherwise noted, all photographic images in this blog are the sole property of Kim L Branson and therefore may not be copied or used in any way without expressed permission by the owner. Thank you.

Welcome to CLIQUE!

I can trace my love of photography back three generations, to the early 1900s and my paternal great-grandfather, Henry Mattson. I have a really cool photo that he took of the old family homestead in Minnesota, sometime before 1910. According to family history, Grampa Mattson frequently took photos of his world - the people and places that he loved.

It warms my heart to know that this love of photography didn't skip any generations as it passed down to me! I am blessed to have such a legacy and I hope to pass it on to my own children and grandchildren some day.

I experience a physical and spiritual thrill whenever the Lord shows Himself in His marvelous creation around us and in the people I meet. My dream vacation would be to spend a year or two just traveling around the US, stopping at little out of the way places and photographing the interesting characters and the beauty of nature to be found along the way - those things that draw me closer to GOD and help point others to Him, too.

Monday, December 5, 2011

Texture Tuesday ~ Celebrate eDition

Because we (here in the US) are in the middle of our Holiday Season (Thanksgiving/Christmas/New Year's), the theme for this week's challange is "Celebrate!" The most important reason to celebrate is the birth and life of Jesus Christ, Who was given to us as a Gift from GOD the Father. If we choose to accept this Gift, we will spend eternity with Him and with all those who have died in Christ before us, living forever in a state of joy, satisfaction and love; with no pain, no stress and no sorrow. Truly, a reason to celebrate!


My photo doesn't really reflect that type of celebration, however -- instead, I am sharing this fireworks photo that I took nearly three years ago (January 3, 2009). Alaska was celebrating her 50th year of statehood that day and there were state- and city-wide events happening all that weekend, one of which was this fabulous fireworks show held in downtown Anchorage. Normal low temps for that time of year are in the upper teens Farenheit - you can see in the last photo what the temp was while we were downtown experiencing the festivities!


Straight out of Camera

FORMULA --

* Cropped original image to 8 x 10 300dpi
* Ctrl J to Duplicate layer - Soft Light 55%
* Added Kim Klassen's "Look Upon" texture - Multiply 85%
* Merged layers and clipped to border mask
* Added text: CAC Shishoni Brush (Alaska); Gloucester MT Extra Condensed (50 years of statehood); Bernard MT Condensed (1959-2009)
* Using white type, applied Overlay blending mode @ 100%
* Added my own watermark (Beyond Wonderland & Tekton Pro); applied Soft Light and lowered opacity to 55%


Yes, that's 24 degrees BELOW zero! Just a bit nippy...


Be sure to stop by Kim Klassen Cafe and check out this week's fabulous entries!

~ klb

16 comments:

Cedar said...

Beautiful celebration photo!

Pat Mark said...

This conveys the theme perfectly. So pretty.

kareninkenai said...

the texture processing even made the fireworks brighter and stand out more; lovely work. Happy Holidays. Karen {visiting today from TT}

Nadege, said...

Wow, it looks like an exploding volcano.

Nadege, said...

Wow, it looks like an exploding volcano.

Nadege, said...

Wow, it looks like an exploding volcano.

Gardening in a Sandbox said...

Lot of light and sparkles. Wonderful. V

Rosie said...

That's a great capture, but also lovely editing. I really enjoyed reading through your process, which probably makes me sound a bit geeky, but I find all this so fascinating. It's like a rollercoaster of textures!!

johanna said...

wow! the processing adds so much to the photo!!

Terrie said...

Holy moly it's cold there! How do you even get out of bed???? Oh, the photo is a cool use of textures (no pun intended :)

Angie said...

WOW! Now THAT's a CELEBRATION photo! Fireworks! Yeah! :) Super lovely use of texture, too.

(I am going to eat that crabapple.) ;)

Pat said...

Your edit really pumped up the sparkles!

EarlK said...

Beautifully done! The texturing really brings out the fireworks. And, I thought it was cold here, Bellevue, Nebraska, this morning at +4 F degrees.

Marilyn said...

Stunning!

The Artful Diva said...

Cool fireworks - well done!

Sharon said...

Lovely! Wonderful use of texture. I'm glad I found your blog.