a floral photo art friday

An early morning photo foray into the garden this morning 

led to the discovery of this little guy sleeping in one of my clematis blooms...

or so I thought...

as I was shooting I realized that he was actually enjoying my clematis for breakfast!

Both peony bushes are now heavy with blooms!

I love the colours they bring to the garden in front of the house.

One bright red on one side of the steps to the porch

and a delicate pink on the other side...

I do wish they would last a little longer into the summer...

but I always have my photos!

This week, for Photo Art Friday, I decided to dive back into the world of Photoshop 

and applied Bonnie's  "Painterly" texture to one of my peony photos.

This is what I did:

duplicated the photo in soft light at 75%

adjusted the brightness slightly

applied one layer of the "Painterly" texture in soft light at 100% 

and a second in vivid light at 25%

I used a soft brush to remove the texture from the centre after each application

and made a slight levels adjustment

I was pleased with the final product...

it is easy to be pleased if you don't know what else you could have done *lol*

What do you think??

I would love feedback or suggestions on how I might have done this differently...

Wishing you all an awesome weekend!! 

It is a long one for us here in Canada!

Maybe I'll try my hand at photographing fireworks!

Linking to Photo Art Friday