3 Quarters Today

My Life, my photography, my passions

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Tree Springs to Life in Photoshop

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Tree Springs to life in Photoshop

Sometimes my commute home takes twice as long as I stop and take pictures. Yesterday was no exception as the combination of the sky, clouds and the emerging spring greenery beckoned me more than once to stop the car.

The straight out of camera was just dull and flat. Not nearly what I saw visually with the naked eye. So after adjusting the white balance down from blue to more green in Gimp I then went to work in photoshop.

I first brightened the whole image. Then selected the blues in the sky and copied the results into their own sky layer. From there I adjusted the blue until it was vibrant.

As a result of brightening the foreground grass was blown out. To fix I color selected browns from the foreground and copied into a new layer. This layer I darkened. In actuality there are three different exposures in this image. Probably not technically correct, but that’s the result.

A little background on the tree, it’s been one of my favorite vistas on my drive home between Murdock and Elmwood for many years. I’ve often wanted to stop and take a picture against the ever changing Nebraska sky. Now I have an excuse. My goal is to take regular images as the seasons and weather changes, then stitch them together in a time lapse fashion to represent a yearly “life of a tree”.

Has anyone attempted something like this? If so I’d love to see the result.

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Photoshop Friday: Sunset Silhouette

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I’m starting a new series, Photoshop Friday. In one way I miss my 365 Project and blogging on a more regular basis, and between picking just one photo per week it leaves me little room to experiment with Photoshop. So I’ll be choosing photos which I think I can improve with post production. So here is week one of Photoshop Friday.

Photoshop and Raw through Gimp

#7/52: Chevy Truck in the Barn

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Old Chevy Truck

Had some time to play around with Photoshop tonight and have been sitting on this photo for a few weeks. I miss Photoshop and post production.

For those interested I created duplicated image layers. Posterized one layer heavily, the set the opacity to 73%. Used gradient, from upper left to lower right and added a orange color overlay at about 20%. I always create adjustment layers in an action, some I use, others I don’t, but the action saves time. For the car I bumped the contrast and adjusted the levels.

#6/62: Venison Stew Recipe

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My husband was a very successful deer hunter this past fall/winter and as a result we have venison in the freezer. I’ve never cooked venison before and was a little hesitant. Always heard venison tastes “gamey”. So I started off with venison stew, figured all the flavors and vegetables would cover any gamey taste. To my surprise it taste identical to beef stew!

Venison Stew recipe
Venison Stew

We are a big fan of  jerky and the dehydrator has been going pretty much non-stop. ( I love deer jerky, but that’s another post) With so much meat, and beef prices going through the roof, I thought venison would be better used to stretch our meat budget.

I’m pretty confident with soup and stews, so it was a natural transition. Was it a success? Would I be posting it here if it wasn’t? My daughter loved it so much she would eat two bowls at each sitting. Needless to say there was no left overs. Venison stew really tastes like beef stew.

Venison Stew recipe
Venison Stew recipe

The following recipe is a guideline. I’m a dash of this and a dash of that type of cook. Pour some of this in, a little of this, a little more, and…that looks good. So use your own judgement, get creative and feel free to substitute.

Venison Stew Recipe

  • 3-4 lbs venison (cubed into 1/2-1″ pieces)
  • 32 oz beef stock (homemade from shank leg bones)
  • 16 oz potato stock (water left over from boiling potatoes)
  • 20 oz can tomato sauce
  • Olive oil for browning
  • 1 large onion
  • 3 stalks celery
  • 1 frozen bag mixed soup vegetables
  • 3 potatoes peeled and cubed
  • 1 cup corn
  • 1 cup sliced carrots
  • 5 bay leaves
  • 3 TBSP dried parsley
  • 1 tsp seasoning salt
  • 1 TBSP black pepper

Directions

1. Cube the venison, season well with seasoning salt and pepper

2. Pour 2 TBSP olive oil in skillet, sear & brown venison, do not cook all the way through.

3. Place browned venison in large stock pot

4. Alternate placing venison, vegetables, and seasonings in stock pot.

5. Add liquids and stir thoroughly

6. Heat to boiling

7. Set to LOW and simmer for 3-4 hours and stir occasionally.

8. The venison stew can be cooked, or left on low for many more hours as the flavors continue to blend. In only improves with time.

In the past few years I have learned to love the taste of deer meat. In Eastern Nebraska corn fed whitetail tastes just like Angus beef. Western Nebraska mule deer fed on sage need a little different seasonings and preparation. So my mother-in-law bought me a wild game cookbook.

If you don’t have home grown venison harvested by your favorite hunter with a rifle, muzzle loader, or bow then you can order venison or other wild game online.

The Sporting Chef’s Better Venison CookbookReal Meat Venison Jerky Dog Treats (12 oz)Buffalo Bills 10oz 100% Farm Raised 7Gourmet Game Steaks – Avg 2 LB Case (all sizes are approximate)Venison Medallions – 3 pieces, 4 oz eaVenison Ground Meat – 1 lb

More Soup and Stew Recipes

#5/52: Snow Storm in Nebraska

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Snow in Nebraska

When it snows in Nebraska, it really snows. When the wind stops blowing, the snow settles into the trees, and the sun comes out the countryside is a magnificant site. If it is a wet spring snow it sticks to everything, covering the trees, and making for more photo opportunities than I could choose from, so here are a few more from rural Nebraska.

I always am looking for a good excuse to drive around the country, test out my camera and snow is a good opportunity to learn more about white balance and how to get true whites during snow and not blue.

Right now I’m just going to post the results. All of the photos are SOOC (straight out of camera) with the exception of the top photo, the greenish tinge just kept bugging me so I adjusted the white balance in a levels layer.

Nebraska snowy creek
Nebraska snowy creek
Snowy Farm Tires
Snow covered farm equipment
Minimum maintenance road in Nebraksa
Go Down this road at your own risk