Some of these photos are better than others, but this gives a pretty good representation of what was blooming along the street at the time.

A photo a day…

Follow an aspiring photographer, mother of a busy toddler, teacher, world traveler, blogger, on her journey of discovery and growth in photography with a digital SLR. Fun, inspiring, encouraging, and definitely recommended. A regular highlight in my email inbox.

Join NomadBaby and the challenge of a picture a day for 2010.

OK. No, we weren’t in a plane crash. This is from the backlot tour at Universal Studios in Hollywood. It’s the crash set from War of the Worlds. Pretty neat, eh?

And that’s the Taj Mahal. At Legoland. (Wouldn’t that be cool if we had gone to India and seen the real Taj Mahal!? Nope. Not this spring break.)

San Fransisco. Again, compliments of Lego builders at Legoland. (We also went on lots of fun rides there!)

And the beach. Windy and cold and wet and blindingly bright. But the kids loved it anyway!

Look close! He (or she) blends in pretty well! (And those palm trees are really tall!)

BEFORE

(original photo reduced to 300 x 400 pixels in Paint Shop Pro to minimize bandwidth)

AFTER www.picnik.com

Edit: I uploaded the picture to picnik.com and did the following:
1) Auto-fix
2) Crop: X 2 (ie. twice)
3) Colors: Cool -15, Saturation +20
4) Sharpness: 30
5) Save: Reduced to 300 x 400 pixels, and Compression 8

What do you think?

AFTER

I decided to show a closeup of some cactus prickles by cropping this photo. Can you see which part I selected?

AFTER Picnik

Eucalyptus Tree

I was really just playing around with the first photo I came to. I cropped out the fences, as well as the large branch on the left, and focused in on a smaller section of foliage. I used the Auto-fix, which cooled down the colors, and played around with the color and contrast options a little, as well. I didn’t really know what I was doing, but hey, it was fun.

Next time I’ll have to remember to write down exactly what I did, like at Nomad Baby – which is much more helpful. There, you’ll find great photos on the journey of a young, traveling family, including camera settings, photo edit how-to’s, etc..

This was my first visit to Picnik to edit a photo. The free basic version offers a TON of features and selectivity options, and is very user friendly. Upload a photo directly from your computer, edit the photo, and then save it back to your computer.

Red Bird of Paradise (Caesalpinia pulcherrima)
Fabaceae Family

A landscape shrub growing to 10 feet tall with vibrant, deep orange and yellow flowers. Often planted on medians or alongside roads. So beautiful you may be tempted to pick a bloom, but be careful of the many small, sharp thorns!

Brittlebush, Incienso, Goldenhills (Encelia farinosa)
Sunflower Family (Asteraceae)

Drought-resistant, silvery-gray bush blooms November to May.