A New Thing…

I have recently discovered a lovely group of people…cyclists! Several of our friends are keen cyclists and a few months ago my dearly beloved started joining them on their morning rides.

I’d my bike for 2 years, but had only ridden about four times…shocking! Here it is…

Anyway, in December, at the grand age of 60 plus a few months, I got on the bike and started cycling. We live in an area that has some sneaky little hills, which are killers when one is unfit and starting out in this sport. My poor little heart pounds away and I puff and pant up those little killers!

I am not usually proud of what I do or my achievements, but I must say that I am pretty chuffed with myself and how I am improving. I have now graduated from my baby rides to riding with the group of friends. However, I realise my limits and am definitely the slowest in the group.

This brings me back to the group of cyclists…they are so encouraging and complimentary about my efforts. At least one of them hangs back with me and makes sure I do not get into any problems on the ride. A couple of them have been my personal trainers and taught me how to use the gears etc. As I said…what a lovely group of people.

A b&w version…

…and a partial colour edit for MOM 127…

I changed the red of the bike like to orange, though it still looks pretty red here 🙂

MoM 106…

My previous post was about a visit to a spa hotel. The following photo was of the wall around the church. I love old buildings and weathered walls, doors etc. They have such character.

I am posting a last minute entry on Lori’s Mandarin Orange Monday…

I changed the photo to Black & White, then used the Coloured Pencil in the Filters layer…

Then I added an orange colour fill layer, changed the blend layer to overlay and lowered the opacity…

 

 

MOM 105…

At the Bristol International Balloon Fiesta I captured a few flashes of orange. Very kind of them to put on a show just in time for a MOM entry 🙂 The only editing I did on these photos was to adjust the tone and bump up the saturation. I tried a few artistic takes, but they just looked awful. So I kept it simple.

Herewith my entries. Some more photos can be seen here

Do visit MOM to see what other people’s entries.

 

Morning Sky…

It’s a funny old thing, but this morning I got up and took some photos of the sunrise. Well that’s not a funny old thing…the funny thing is that it reminded me of a couple of lines I wrote in my journal a few days ago…

Wait in the morning

Dawn breaking upon the sky

As earth softly wakes

and then these are the words I read in Psalm 19:1 after having taken the photos…

The heavens proclaim the glory of God

The skies display his craftsmanship

Little events weaving life together.

I am linking up to Lori’s Mandarin Orange Monday

I enhanced the colour by using a colour pop method, though I must say that it did not need a lot of enhancing…

Through the bullrushes…

A couple of posts ago I put up some photos taken on a walk on the estate where we live. We consider ourselves privileged to live in such a beautiful haven that is close to the amenities of shops, medical care and other necessities. As 2014 is getting underway, I stirred myself and edited a picture to enter for this week’s Mandarin Orange Monday

Below are the first edits I did – adjusting the tonal values, curves and adding a soft light blend…

For MOM entry, I bumped up the hue layer, added a warming photo filter and increased the density. It ended up with a soft orange tone to the photo…

And, just for fun, a monochrome version…

Simbithi Sunset

On Saturday evening I got distracted from what my husband was talking about and this was what distracted me…

A beautiful sunset. My darling man was a tad irritated because I kept interrupting him to have a look at this gorgeous sight, but then he took notice and had a peek for himself 🙂 I find it difficult to capture sunrises and sunsets and get a true sense of the colours. I did cheat and add some fill light in Light Room. In PS I upped the saturation by about 2. That was all I did to that photo.

However, in the photo below, I added a Posterize layer and then an Ocean Ripple layer. It makes for quite a dramatic and colourful picture.

I am linking up to Lori’s MOM Do go on over to her site and have a look at the other entries.