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Saturday, April 21, 2012

A Beauty of the South

Here in the South we have beautiful Southern Magnolia trees.

The blooms are huge and smell wonderful.


This tree is in our church's cemetery.

While I was waiting for my cohort in the youth room renovation project to show up
I walked around the cemetery trying to find the oldest head stone.

I actually smelled the tree before I saw it.

(Yes, I KNOW they're big trees but my head was down
looking at head stones not up in the air looking around!)


By the way, I did find some very old head stones from the 1800's.

One even had a photo embedded in it of the deceased gentlemen
in his younger years standing in his military uniform.

I really liked that one.  Maybe because I've never seen anything like it before.


My cohort finally arrived so play time was over and it was time to get to work.

I recently downloaded a bunch of free textures from various artistic people
so I decided to see what I could with the following shot of the Magnolia bloom.

This is the latest texture, Victoria, from NClayes Textures
and our Your Sunday Best blog hop hostess, Nancy, at A Rural Journal.


I can't remember the exact formula but I tweaked the colors and sharpened the background layer.

Then, I duplicated the background layer and Multiplied it
decreasing the opacity to somewhere between 40-50%.

I added the Victoria texture and Lightened it leaving it at 100%.

I, then, erased the texture from the flower.

Next time, I'll have to pay more attention to what I do to the image!

Linking with



Till next time,





11 comments:

TexWisGirl said...

i love our big ol' southern magnolias. the blossoms are as big as your head. :)

rainfield61 said...

The tree is big, but may not be big enough to get your awareness.

Hope that the tree can grow bigger in the near future.

Greeting from Malaysia.

Denise at Autumn Sky said...

Beautiful photos. Magnolia trees are so lovely and yet so messy. I would love to find one for some pretty floral photos. Very nice.

Lynn said...

The blooms are beautiful:@)

Tracy said...

Beautiful photo...the magnolia's are gorgeaous and your photo makes it look as if it is made of stone; smooth and sturdy. I like the texture change as well...nice work!

Cheryl said...

Simply stunning. I'd head south in a heartbeat just to see all the gorgeous spring blossoms.

EG CameraGirl said...

These blossoms seem so elegant to me.

Nancy said...

Beautiful blooms and thank you for trying out the texture. I think you did marvelously!

And thank you for sharing at Your Sunday Best this week. xoxo

Laura said...

absolutely gorgeous!

Custom Comforts said...

Beautiful photos of the Magnolia tree! I've never smelled one, but I can imagine what a magnificent smell those lovely flowers must give off. I love walking through cemeteries, especially in Charleston, SC. So much history there - you can't help but wonder about the stories each stone represents.
Cindy

Lisa Gordon said...

My favorite flower, so beautifully captured.
This is absolutely gorgeous!

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