FotoEffects Photography - Judy Horton

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The morning sun strikes rock formations in the Grand Canyon, as seen from the North Rim in Arizona; detail in this image is best viewed in a larger size. Thanks to everyone for their comments on the wild turkey and their good wishes on my epidural cortisone shot. The procedure itself was quite painless. This time the doctor gave me some anesthesia, as he was making a different kind of approach and using the flouroscope. That stuff makes me incredibly sleepy. I came home and slept all afternoon. So far, so good. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. This shot of the Grand Canyon is one I recently rediscovered in my archives from the early fall and reprocessed. I used a number of different effects, including Topaz Adjust, Color EFEX Pro, and some regular Photoshop filter and blending effects. If you view the large size, you will really see some detail! I'm going to post this and go to bed. I hope you all have a really nice day! It is supposed to be quite warm here today. It got up to 65 degrees in Colorado Springs today, not a good day to sleep away. Oh. well. Oh, if some of you should like to look at the other North Rim Grand Canyon shots, they are here: http://fotoeffects.smugmug.com/gallery/6698528_KNq6d#476011624_efKkk.

The sun is reflected in water droplets on fir tree needles; please look at this in the large size and you'll see the starbursts in all the water drops. I took this shot a couple of months ago when we had our first bout of hoarfrost. I dashed out the take photos, but the sun was melting the frost faster than I could capture it. I ended up spending about two hours taking photos of water drops all over the garden and yard. I remember being so excited that I forgot to get breakfast for my poor long-suffering hubby. You all posted a lot of great images today. I really enjoyed looking through them all. It is amazing how much talent is here on smugmug. I am constantly being inspired to try new things by all the creativity I see here. So, thanks, everyone for being SUCH an inspiration! Hope your day is lovely. I know Dave is getting buried in snow again in Seattle. I think we're all ready for winter to end.

A lioness photographed last spring in a wildlife park.

A hummingbird exhibits amazing acrobatic flying skills

As we were driving home from dinner out last evening, the sun suddenly broke through some holes in the clouds and created this scene. I hopped out of the car and quickly captured a few shots. This is one of them. I'm glad so many of you like the shot of the two hummers. Thanks for taking the time to comment. I sure enjoyed all your shots today...lots of wonderful images.

I just finished processing the images from my first ever photo shoot with a young, aspiring model. Heather is a lovely young woman and I was very lucky to be able to do this photoshoot with her. This is one of my favorite images from the shoot. If you are interested in seeing the others, they are in the following gallery: http://fotoeffects.smugmug.com/gallery/8572425_qAADT#564825381_oE9Qd. I'd love to hear your suggestions and comments, as many of you have so much more experience than I do.

A late evening sky at Spruce Grove in Colorado; the image has been enhanced in Photoshop

I photographed this turkey vulture in Big Bend National Park in extreme south Texas on our recent trip. I stayed on my knees for about an hour photographing this vulture and another on a nearby telephone pole. I believe this one was the female. She meticulously groomed every single feather on her body...one at a time! She did every feather the way she is doing this one, running her beak along its length. Look at this image in the largest sizes and you'll see some marks on her feathers. I'm not sure if they are parasites or something else. Her feathers were, on the whole, gorgeous and I think even her head is not ugly like many people think. You can see the little hairs on her head. The other vulture did some grooming, as well, but he was not nearly as meticulous and some of his feathers were pretty ratty. I wanted to get the vultures taking off and by the time I finally got those shots, my legs were shaking, as were my arms from holding my position for such a long time. I shot this with my 200 - 400mm lens and it is a big sucker to handle. I'm going to post a bit early, as my sciatica is killing me. It is great to be back posting and looking at all your wonderful images. Hope your weekend is terrific. Tomorrow we'll have to dig out from our recent blizzard. Hoping the sun melts a lot of it.

Hey, Mom, isn't this how YOU make soup? Last week I had my first ever photoshoot with a baby. Chyler is an adorable six-month-old girl and has to have one of the best dispositions ever. I shot pictures of her for over an hour and she never fussed at all, except when her mom was changing her outfit for the second time. This is one of the images from that shoot. If you are interested, the rest are here: http://fotoeffects.smugmug.com/gallery/8414425_vn5R3#P-1-12. Thanks for all the nice comments on my hubby's picture today. There were sure a lot of terrific shots on the dailies today. We are going to a breakfast and preview of a show of the work of Fernando Botero, a Mexican artist, at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. Botero sculpts and paints and is known for his characterizations of rather rotund people. We're looking forward to seeing the show. Have a great day, everyone!

A stellar's jay, captured in my yard, as it was trying to get peanuts from a wreath peanut feeder. Although the light was quite bright when I took this shot, using my 400 mm lens at 1/8000th of a second, it was not bright enough to keep the image from being noisy. I have cleaned up most of the noise because I like the bird's position, but there is still a tiny bit of noise in the image. We have lots of stellar's jays in the Black Forest of Colorado where I live and a few regular blue jays. It is almost midnight and I have been processing images almost for eight hours straight. I'm going to post this and go to bed. Have a great day! Thanks to everyone for their comments on my iris and peony images, as well as my image for the "Liquid" challenge. I really appreciate the time you all take to provide feedback and support.

Sunrise in Big Bend National Park in Texas; I took this shot on our recent trip to Big Bend. There were a number of lovely sunrises while we were there, but I think this one is my favorite. Another week has flown by and Easter is almost upon us. Hope you are able to do something enjoyable this weekend. I'm off to bed as soon as I post this. Thanks, everyone, who commented on my shot of the green heron with its damselfly. It is really gratifying to get such nice comments from such a terrific bunch of photographers. I am constantly amazed by the talent here on smugmug.

Please view the detail of this hippo's mouth in the largest sizes...quite interesting. Photographed at the Cheyenne Mt. Zoo in Colorado Springs. Thanks for all your nice comments on my parade of homes basement bar pic. Hope everyone has a good day today!

The Wonder of Childhood - Two small children are entranced with the fish in a small pond at the Denver Botanical Garden. There is nice detail if you want to look at it in the largest sizes. We're off this morning to go camping near Crede, Colorado with our kids and their families. It is supposed to be pretty chilly up there. Anyway, I'll miss commenting and posting for a couple of days until we get back. Hope you all have a great weekend!

A view of our recent snowstorm from an upstairs window.

The reunion is over. Our dinner party was a lot of fun, but I'm pretty wiped out. Tomorrow, though, I'll be back to my regular routine and I hope to catch up on everyone's photos. Have a good beginning to the week.

While trying to capture some ants and aphids in my garden, I noticed this little spider (about a half inch across) with a large fly. The spider was already sucking the insides out of the fly, which was already dead or paralyzed. I managed to bring this pair into the house, where I experimented with a number of different lighting arrangements...trying to get the details of the spider, while maintaining a good dof. It was very difficult and I never succeeded in getting the kind of sharpness and clarity that I wanted. However, I think the subject is sufficiently interesting to use one of these images for my daily. The other images from this effort are in my macro gallery (under the "other" category). I think for this shot, you should probably view it in the original size. The whole time I was shooting this the spider was moving around on the white paper. Thanks for your kind comments on my iris pic today. There were a lot of wonderful images posted today. By the way, has anyone heard from Dave Dedman? I haven't seen anything of his in a while and I know he had pneumonia. I sure hope he's ok. If some of you are communicating with him, give him my best wishes.

"The Boy in the Bubble" - song by Paul Simon. This is the redone version of this. I took a new photo of a bubble and, instead of cutting out the bubble and putting it on a different background, this time I kept the bubble and the background intact. All I did was add the boy. If you look at it in the largest sizes, you'll see the reflections in the bubble now reflect the actual setting in which it was taken --- although you'll see the pine trees in my garden, which do not actually show in the background itself. You can also see that there are reflections both in front of and behind the boy. Having done all that, I'm not sure this is really that great an image. The boy does not pop out at you. You have to look carefully for him. However, I think this may be about as good a job as I can do on this idea. I'd appreciate your thoughts regarding whether I should enter this or the great balls of fire shot that I posted on the dailies two days ago. Thanks, as always, for your comments, which I value a lot. I did learn quite a bit doing this little project and that, of course, is never wasted effort. Have a great day everyone! My hubby and I are going up to Denver to help our daughter put up drywall in her new ballet studio.

A lazy bear is resting but eating at the same time, photographed at the Denver Zoo.

Parachutists Before the Game - at the Air Force/Army game Saturday, a pre-game performance by parachutists from the Air Force Academy and West Point. The man with the flag is a retired Air Force parachutist and a double amputee, who lost both legs in a mid-air collision with his partner, who died in the accident. The other parachutist in this shot is a West Point cadet. Please view this image in the largest sizes to see the detail of the parachutists, including the prothestics of the man with the flag.

I was amazed at the response to my shot of part of our yard during a recent snowstorm. You all have made me consider using it as our Christmas card this year.

Hope everyone has a good day today!

What's going on over there? This is another image from the photoshoot last week. I think I created six different versions of it. I'm not sure which one I prefer. If you'd like to check out the others, they are here: http://fotoeffects.smugmug.com/gallery/9105046_ZAAtf#606886760_Ya8PB
Thanks for all the nice comments on the photo of the gloriosa daisy and the red bug. I was surprised with all the nice comments, as it just seemed like a pretty ordinary shot to me...although I did think the bug made it a bit different. I've spent the whole day processing shots from a wedding I shot last weekend and I'm not even half done. Oh, well, perseverance will allow me to get them done one day soon. Have a great day, everyone!

Do Ya Really Wanna Get Any Closer?

Just before the supermarket escapade I recounted a couple of days ago, as I got out of my car in the parking lot, a car pulled in beside me and this guy was poking his head out the window. I had my fisheye lens on the camera and asked his owner if I could take his picture. She actually had another great dane in the car and it was poking its head out the driver side window. The woman had almost no room for herself. Both dogs were barking but they were very sweet when you held out your hand to be sniffed. Really gorgeous dogs! Anyway, this was MY "close encounter of the third kind."

I'm posting this early and going to bed, as I have a wedding to shoot tomorrow morning and I must get an early start. Have a great Saturday!

If you look at this in the largest sizes, you'll see a fainter lightning to the left of the main strike. Also, it looks to me like an offshoot of the main strike is going over to a power pole. I took this on the way home from the zoo. We pulled over and stopped and I rested my camera on the window frame of the car and shot repeatedly, trying to capture some lightning.

I was privileged to shoot this lovely little girl a few days ago and this is one of many, many shots from that morning. Golly, gee whiz, everyone. Thanks for all the nice comments on my lightning capture. Several folks wondered how I managed to capture lightning with the 1/8sec. shutter speed. I just kept taking one shot right after another. I know most people use much longer exposures, but, as I was just balancing the camera on the edge of the car window, I thought there would be too much movement for a really long exposure. I was lucky to capture the lightning, but I wanted to try, since I had been waiting all summer for a good lightning storm. Have a great day!

Colorado Balloon Classic - We went to this event very early this foggy morning. The balloon launch was delayed several times, but eventually, around 8:30, the balloons starting launching. There was apparently almost no wind aloft, so, after they launched, the balloons just hung around in the air over us for a long time. This shot was early in the first wave of launches. The shot was taken with my fisheye lens. I still have many, many shots of this event to process, but if you'd like to see a few of the others, they can be found here in my "Colorado Balloon Classic" gallery, which is in the "Other" category: http://fotoeffects.smugmug.com/Other/Colorado-Balloon-Classic/9540120_hQhxe#641316963_fagpa. I actually entered a different shot from the balloon festival in the Dgrin Challenge "A Different Perspective." I have not had any success in the challenges so far, but it is such a good learning experience that I keep trying. My train shots were done with the thought that I might use them in the challenge. With regard to the train shots, I actually took pics of two different trains. The first was not moving too fast and I got pretty cocky that I was completely safe so close to the tracks. The second train came through much faster, and, although I seemed to be fine, I must admit it was a bit more unnerving. However, I'll probably do it again, as I really did not get the shot I was hoping for.

Thanks for the great response to my train shot. A lot of you also looked at some of the other shots in my "Trains, Trains, Trains" gallery, under the "Other" category. Thanks for all the comments. I sure appreciate them.

Have a great Monday --- if that is possible?

Inside the TicToc Diner - The TicToc Diner in Lake City, CO, is one of only a few surviving diners called Valentine Diners, which were ordered from a catalog. Today was the day when I could have gotten the shot of a lifetime, but didn't. After our father's day breakfast at I-Hop, we decided to take a drive over to the Woodland Park area in our old restored 1975 Porsche 911. Apparently, everyone else in Colorado Springs had the same idea because traffic was incredibly heavy, although moving along at a fast clip. We're tooling along at about sixty miles an hour and I have my camera in my hand, when out of the corner of my eye I see these big brown shapes. I swivel my head to look and realize I'm looking at two large brown bears....eating on grass or some other plant. They looked incredibly cute and rolly polly. There was no shoulder on which to stop and the traffic was so thick that it was impossible to stop. I was sick about it. By the time we got back around, they were gone. Oh, well, c'est la vive!

Clearly, this image has had considerable post-processing. I don't even remember all the steps I took to get to this point. I was aiming for a sort of super-HDR effect. I don't know if I like the image or not. Please give me a real critique on this one. What do you like, if anything. What do you dislike. How would you suggest it be improved? Thanks for your help.

A roadrunner who has just caught a lizard, photographed in Big Bend National Park in Texas. This little guy would come out to hunt every single afternoon behind the line of RVs in the Big Bend campground. For this picture, he let me get within about five feet of him. He had caught this lizard in the grass and he evidently did not want to eat it there, so he took off across the asphalt road. He was making little moaning sort of sounds as he was carrying it. Every little bit he would stop for a second and make this sound. We saw quite a few roadrunners in Big Bend and all the others were quite a bit larger than this fella. Thanks for the comments on my kite boarding picture. Have a great day!

When I saw this opening in a fence at the Denver Botanical Garden and this view through it, I knew I would want to make it a daily. Some folks may think the workers and the tractor spoil a rather idyllic scene, but I rather like the down-to-earth aspect of what it takes to keep a huge botanical garden looking its best. Thanks again for your comments on the daily yesterday of Chyler, the little girl baby in the swim suit. I sure appreciate everyone's thoughts. I never cease to be amazed at the variety and quality of the images on smugmug. To paraphrase, so many photos, so little time...

Autumn in Colorado - Taken just behind Spruce Grove Campground.

Thanks to all of you who commented on my western bluebird pic. Happy Halloween, everyone!

Curious Giraffe - Photographed at the Cheyenne Mt. Zoo in Colorado Springs. In my opinion, the giraffe enclosure at the zoo is one of the most interesting to visitors, as you can purchase crackers from a vending machine and feed them to the giraffes. You are right at the level of their heads, so it is a neat perspective. It is a large area and the zoo has a lot of giraffes, young and old. This fella was hoping for a cracker and wanted to check out my camera. It it 11:00 p.m. and I just got home from shooting the wedding. I'm anxious to look at all the hundreds of shots I took, but not tonight...just too tired. Hope everyone has a good day...we're going to the annual Parade of Homes. It is always lots of fun to look at the houses and furnishings.

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