Yesterday, despite the rain several Las Vegas AUG members hit the trails at The Las Vegas Springs Preserve for our first Photowalk. The gray weather actually revealed some interesting and unusual sights, such as water flowing in the creeks and streams and the rainchains and rain fountains in action. The low light also provided for some very vibrant flower shots.

note: these shots were all taken with pocket Canon SD1100 IS point and shot handheld.

I took over 100 images. Here's a few of the before and afters from my first batch...

This daisy sprinkled with drops was just so stunning and vibrant.. especially after a little boost with Photoshop CS5 built in HDR toning. HDR effects can be over the top, or they can be subtle as this one is. I love how the center of the flower almost glows. I also isolated the dirt background sections and pixeleted them to force the flower to the front. The whole thing also got a contrast bump through a black and white layer set on soft light at a lowered opacity.


These orange leaves against the building are such a rare sight in Vegas, where most trees are evergreens or do not change color in the fall. I loved the echoes of the copper building with the vibrant leaves. I adjusted the curves and bumped the vibrance then experimented with the lens blur filer on the left side...



Although Saguaros are not native to our part of the Mojave, they do grow well here. The cactus walk was all lit up as part of The Preserve's annual light display. This majestic fellow got a boost in the sky, a little repair down on the lower right where there was some blow out and a bit of light painting on the cactus itself.  I also used a color layer set on color burn to create the vignette effect.