Cactus Monday: I'm here, in Phoenix!

I'm sitting here in our new empty house, borrowing my husband's sprint card to post my first Cactus Monday post as an Arizona resident!  It's been a hectic couple of weeks, and we are still waiting for our stuff to arrive.  I can't wait to get settled to get back into art again.  I joined a local sketch group, so more than likely you all will be seeing some cacti inspired sketches for upcoming Cactus Monday posts.  Can't wait!

In the middle of this moving mess I had a birthday, and my husband bought me an amazing digital SLR camera.  So we quick ran out to South Mountain Park, which is a bike ride distance from the house and took some pics with it.  I can't wait to figure out this camera and use it to it's fullest potential and get come cool new lenses.  I'm really loving where we are living.  We are at the base of the Mountains on a golf course community.  You can see golf carts zipping through the cul-de-sac and an occasional beer cart.  I haven't even ventured out yet to see much of the neighborhood and golf course, but I already love it!

Below are some pics I took with my new camera.  Enjoy!

 

Cactus Monday: Tilt Shift photography in South Mountain Park - Phoenix AZ

See the cacti in there?  Trust me, this picture is riddled with Saguaros!  Just click on it for a close up view.  Above is a picture of my husband (on the left) and his co-worker overlooking Phoenix from the mountain top.  This was taken on the relocation trip the company arranged for us.

So what is Tilt Shift photography?  "Tilt-Shift miniature faking is a creative technique whereby a photograph of a life-size location or object is manipulated to give an optical illusion of a photograph of a miniature scale model."

I have been wanting to try this for a while, and this is my first attempt.  It's sorta there, but I think it can be better achieved.  I just googled "how to do Tilt Shift photography" and went all Photoshop ninja on this image!  In addition to the instructions I found, I dodged and burned, blurred and sharpened, adjusted hues and saturation, variations, levels and curves.  It was fun, and I'm looking forward to doing more!

Happy Cactus Monday fellow cactuteers!